Victoria Mboko rewrote the record books on Thursday night in Montreal. At just 18 years old, she won her maiden WTA Tour title in just her seventh main draw on tour. And it was a big title, on home soil at the WTA 1000 level.
It is not an understatement to say that this is a historic victory. To fully understand just how historic, here is Mboko’s National Bank Open title by the numbers.
*Stats courtesy of Stats Perform
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Coming into the tournament, Mboko was ranked 85th in the world. Her victory makes her the second-lowest ranked player to win a Tier I / WTA 1000 title since the format’s introduction in 1990.
Since 1970, Mboko is the second Canadian semifinalist, finalist, and champion, at the National Bank Open after Bianca Andreescu in 2019. Mboko was the first Canadian to even reach the semifinals at the National Bank Open held in Montreal in the Open Era.
Also, Mboko’s win over world No. 2 Coco Gauff in the fourth round matches the highest-ranked opponent ever defeated by a Canadian woman. Leylah Annie Fernandez and Eugenie Bouchard have also both beaten the reigning world No. 2 at various points in their careers, but Canadian women have yet to beat a sitting world No. 1.
She is the second player since 2009 to claim her maiden title at a WTA 1000 event. The first? Her finals opponent in Montreal, Naomi Osaka.
Mboko is the second wildcard to win the National Bank Open after Monica Seles in 1995.
The victory comes just after Leylah Annie Fernandez’s victory in Washington. It is the first time since 1986 that Canadian women won consecutive events.
18 years, 336 Days
Mboko is the fifth-youngest champion at the NBO since the introduction of the Tier I format in 1990, older only than Jennifer Capriati (1991), Belinda Bencic (2015), Ana Ivanovic (2006) and Martina Hingis (1999).
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Mboko is the third Canadian champion at the NBO in the Open Era after Faye Urban in 1969 and Andreescu in 2019.
She is the third wildcard to reach the semifinals at the National Bank Open in the Open Era after Monica Seles (1995) and Simona Halep (2015). She has equaled the best result achieved by her coach, Nathalie Tauziat, at the National Bank Open (semifinal in 1990, lost to Steffi Graf).
The 2025 National Bank Open is just Mboko’s third WTA 1000 event.
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The number of Grand Slam singles champions defeated by Mboko on her way to the title: Sofia Kenin, Coco Gauff, Elena Rybakina, and Naomi Osaka. She is the first player to do it since Wimbledon 2023, when both Ons Jabeur and Elina Svitolina managed it. Mboko is the youngest to accomplish the feat since the great Serena Williams in 1999.
The 18-year-old is the first Canadian woman to face four former Women’s Singles Grand Slam champions and the first to beat all four in a single WTA event in the Open Era.
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Mboko is the fifth wildcard to win a WTA 1000 title since 1990 and the first since her compatriot Bianca Andreescu did so at Indian Wells in 2019. The other four all won Grand Slam titles during their careers: Monica Seles, Steffi Graf, Maria Sharapova, and Andreescu.
Read also: National Bank Open’s Wheelchair Tennis Exhibition Delivers in First Year in Toronto
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The number of spots Mboko will have jumped in the rankings since the start of the year. She started 2025 at No. 350 in the world but opened up the season on a 22-match winning streak, the longest by a Canadian woman as recorded by the ITF, and won five titles in her first six ITF events to kick off her rise up the rankings.
Mboko entered the Top 300 by the end of January, Top 200 at the beginning of March, and then Top 100 after reaching the third round of Roland-Garros. Her results in Montreal will see her jump into the Top 30 for the first time on the Aug. 11 rankings to a new career-high of No. 25.
On Monday, Mboko will pass Fernandez in the rankings and will become the Canadian No. 1.
Feature Photo : Mathieu Belanger
