Victoria – “everyone calls me Vicky” – Mboko moved into the final round of Roland Garros qualifying on Thursday with a 6-3, 6-2 win over Kathinka von Deithmann.
While her compatriotic Rebecca Marino was completely flummoxed by the 31-year-old from Liechtenstein’s sliced, off-pace shots in an opening-round 6-0, 6-1 loss, Mboko always looked in control in the one- hour and 17-minute contest on Court 9.
Did Mboko get a scouting report from Marino? “No actually,” she said. “I know she was playing around the same time that I was yesterday (actually Tuesday) and I looked at a little bit of points. But all the (Tennis Canada) coaches saw her match and kind of gave me some hints on how to play her.
“She (Von Deichmann) has a really good slice. I think I was expecting it. It kind of prepared me to expect these short slices and anticipate them.”
Mboko couldn’t recall ever facing anyone quite like von Deichmann. “She was a very unique player. I’m happy to have had that kind of experience because on the tour there are girls who play like that and I guess it’s a way to prepare myself.”
Marino struggled to hit freely against the slow pace, low-bouncing Von Deichmann backhands, but Mboko seemed comfortable from the get-go. She ended up with 38 winners and converted six of her seven break points. By the late stages of the match, her brute power showed and she was steamrolling an increasingly, defenceless opponent.
Comparing Thursday with her opening match 6-4, 6-2 win over Austria’s Sinja Kraus, Mboko said, “I’m a lot more used to it now. I had first match of the tournament nerves, first match at a Grand Slam nerves. Today it was a lot easier to get into it and I think I adapted pretty well.”
Not turning 19 until August and having only played at the main tour level since she received a wild card into the Miami Open two months ago after going 27-1 at ITF tournaments at the start of 2025, Mboko could hardly be more impressive.
She reached the second round in Miami, losing to world no. 10 Paula Badosa in a third-set tiebreak and then was beaten 3-6, 6-2, 6-1 by no. 4 Coco Gauff at the Italian Open two weeks ago. Even last week in reaching the final (losing to Egypt’s Mayar Sherif) at the WTA 125 event in Parma, Italy, she defeated players ranked no. 116 (Nuria Parrizas Diaz), no. 94 (Jill Teichmann), no. 43 (Wang Xinyu) and no. 83 (Irina Camelia Begu). Her overall record in 2025 is a total of 39-5.
Asked about Gauff saying in Miami that she was one of the best athletes on the tour, Mboko replied, “I didn’t even know she said that until a bunch of people started sending it to me after. Obviously it’s a really great compliment coming from her because honestly during the match I felt she was a much better athlete than I was – and it made me feel a little insecure on the court. To have gone three sets with her, and kind of shake things up in the match, it was a little better confidence for me – seeing what I can do and need to improve on.”
Mboko, at least to herself, doesn’t feel that she yet has a prominent presence on the tennis scene. “I don’t feel that I’m very well known,” she said. “I feel very new. To be honest, I don’t ever have the feeling that people know who I am. That’s just my feeling – maybe it’s different on the outside. I’m still trying to get to know everyone (fellow players). It’s only a matter of time.”
To gathered reporters who didn’t know Mboko’s back story, she explained how her parents are from the Democratic Republic of Congo and emigrated to the United States in about 2000. That she was born in North Carolina and has three older (tennis-playing) siblings. “They picked up tennis in Charlotte, North Carolina,” she said. “I guess my dad, to further our tennis prowess, wanted us to move to Canada. There were many programs at the time.
“I was born in the States but I grew up in Toronto basically all my life. That’s all I’ve ever known. It’s a very close-knit (tennis) community and I think it had a big impact on my development as a person and as a tennis player.
“I remember watching great Canadian players from the sidelines and it was so inspiring to watch up-and-coming junior talents and pros like Milos (Raonic) and Vasek (Pospisil) and even Genie (Bouchard). That helped me a lot in my growth and development in that I was so close to great players.”
She has not visited the family homeland in the Democratic Republic of Congo. “I’ve never been but I really want to go,” she said. “Maybe this year or in upcoming years to see my grandparents and aunts, uncles and cousins. It would be nice to go back into my roots.”
In her family, mainly her sister and brothers, are the origins of her competitive spirit. “We do have a big age gap,” she said. “My sister is 10 years older than me. I absolutely hated to lose to her. I remember once she killed me 0 and 0 and I remember being devastated. I was so competitive, especially with my siblings. I never wanted to lose to them.”
Her older sister is Grazia and brothers are Kevin and David.
In Friday’s match with a spot on the line for her first Grand Slam main draw, Mboko’s opponent will be No. 58-ranked Kaja Juvan. The 24-year-old Slovenian took a voluntary break from tennis in 2024 but returned to the tour in January. Earlier this month, she reached the final of the WTA 125 event in St. Malo, France, losing to Naomi Osaka.
There was a nice touch right after Thursday’s match as the two players packed up their tennis kits before leaving. Von Deichmann was searching around for a blue Roland Garros towel but couldn’t find one. Mboko became aware of that and gave her own blue towel to the woman who had just been across the net from her.
THE LUCK OF THE DRAW
Proximity is a key word in the possibility of long runs by Canadians at the 2025 French Open.
Under the most immediate threat is No. 53-ranked Gabriel Diallo, playing in his second French Open. (He lost a five-setter to Kei Nishikori in the first round a year ago.) He has easily played the most matches of all the Canadians on European clay this season – 10 with a 7-3 record. Key in that was qualifying and reaching the quarter-finals of the Madrid ATP 1000 where he beat #91-ranked Cam Norrie and No. 16 Grigor Dimitrov before losing to #11 Lorenzo Musetti 6-4. 6-3.
In the Roland Garros first round, he faces No. 18 seed Francisco Cerundolo, an Argentine destined for feats on clay. But Diallo won their only previous meeting 6-4, 6-2 – indoors in Almaty, Kazakhstan last October on the way to the final of the ATP Tour 250 event there.
Felix Auger-Aliassime (name drawn at Thursday’s draw ceremony pictured above), is seeded 29th and starts out with a match against an Italian Matteo Arnaldi. He would then play the winner of another Italian, Flavio Cobolli vs a qualifier/lucky loser. In the third round it could be a currently out-of-form No. 3 seed Alexander Zverev.
After being 0-3 on clay in 2025, Auger-Aliassime should get a boost after a 7-6(4), 6-7(6), 6-3 win over No. 70 Alexandre Muller of France on Thursday. He will play world No. 17 Andrey Rublev on Friday in the semi-finals of the ATP 500 in Hamburg.
Next week at Roland Garros, it will be a first meeting for Auger-Aliassime and the No. 39-ranked Arnaldi, also aged 24.
Denis Shapovalov, seeded No. 27, comes into Roland Garros with a 1-4 record on clay in Europe –including an unlikely 6-3, 6-4 loss to No. 154 Vilius Gaubas, 20, of Lithuania in Rome. But in that match Shapovalov showed commendable patience in rallies against a player having a day – including hitting a tweener lob winner. Sometimes stuff just happens.
Shapovalov begins with a match against No. 48 Pedro Martinez of Spain. He won their only previous meeting 6-4, 6-4, on the red clay of the Italian Open in 2020.
In the second round it could be top Chinese player No. 70-ranked Bu Yunchaokete or a qualifier/lucky loser. In round three might be lurking the inimitable Novak Djokovic, seeded No. 6 – but just how inimitable is this version of the great Serb?
Leylah Fernandez, ranked and seeded No. 27, will start out against No. 38-ranked Olga Danilovic. Fernandez, a modest 2-3 thus far on European clay, could then face two in-form players who are close to her in the draw – Danielle Collins in round two and top seed Aryna Sabalenka in the third.
Fernandez leads the head-to-head with Danilovic 1-0 – having won a Billie Jean King Cup match 7-5, 4-6, 6-4 in 2021.
CENTRE LINE ROLAND GARROS PARKING – OUI MONSIEUR!
In the late 1970s, Parisian automobile drivers used to create their own centre line parking spaces on the Avenue de la Porte d’Auteuil right adjacent the Roland Garros site. In the picture here, a gendarme can be seen trying to restore some order to the situation.
