Victoria Mboko To The Tennis World: Get Ready For Me!
An interview with the 18-year-old Canadian who has taken 2025 by storm so far: 27 wins, 1 loss.
Hi, and welcome back!
I’m very happy to bring you today’s piece at the Tennis Sweet Spot as I got to chat during a virtual media round table with young Canadian sensation, Victoria Mboko. She’s the teen not named Mirra Andreeva that seems to be on a roll to the top. Six tournaments, five titles. Let’s get to know her better, as the WTA Tour should soon start to keep talking about her. She’ll be in the Miami draw, thanks to a wild card.
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Victoria Mboko is the latest proof that Tennis Canada knows how to grow its tennis talent. And how they’re succeeding with a method of “the open door” that lets a very diverse range of players in and makes a point of adjusting to them and their needs. They’ve also become known for hiring tennis coaches from all over the world (France lost many very good people to Tennis Canada).
The list of names brought to the biggest stage by the Canadian system has turned into a who’s who of tennis success: Milos Raonic, Bianca Andreescu, Felix Auger-Aliassime, Denis Shapovalov, Daniel Nestor, Leylah Fernandez, Eugenie Bouchard, Vasek Pospisil, Aleksandra Wozniak, Frank Dancevic, Rebecca Marino, Gabriel Diallo, and so on. (French people are happy to forget it, but Mary Pierce was born in Canada btw.)
And now, Victoria “Vicky” Mboko, 18-year-old, is taking the start of the year by storm on the ITF World Tennis Tour. Read that a couple of times: Victoria Mboko entered six events in 2025 and won five of them. 27 wins for 1 loss. Her last title came at the W75 of Porto. You can read a recap of her last run here thanks to
.
You know that in tennis we love a winning streak. And you absolutely know that tennis loves a winning streak by a young prodigy like nobody else’s business in the professional sports world. So here we are, beaming with excitement at Mboko’s achievements in 2025. The Canadian, a self-declared Serena Williams fan, will soon add another line to a crazy good 2025 as she’s been selected as a member of the Canadian team for the BJK Cup qualifications (April 11-13 in Tokyo).
Mboko has a powerful game and the kind of serve that could make a difference on the Tour. As you can see below, she also has very good hands and a varied game. At just 18, the growth potential is pretty wild.
She did the best introduction of herself in the blog she was hosting at 15 for the ITF. She’s been training a bit all over the world, including a year in Florida and Belgium at the Justine Henin Academy, but she also trains in Montreal at Tennis Canada’s National Training Centre. She’s now sharing her training time between Montreal and Toronto. Mboko grew up in Burlington, Ontario, after being born in Charlotte, North Carolina, where her parents came after leaving the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
How did she start playing tennis? At age four, after watching her three older siblings and then having her dad feed her balls before getting her tennis lessons at the Ace Academy in Burlington, where all the family’s children were playing. “I felt like growing up, all I've been watching was tennis,” she told us on Friday. “I felt I've watched tennis more than playing with toys or watching TV. When you grow up in such a tennis environment, you just want to do the same. I didn’t want to be left out, I wanted to do what my siblings were doing. So I really pushed my parents to help me play more, and they put me in an academy in Burlington, Ontario, and I guess they saw my passion for it. I was working a lot harder to improve, and I was very competitive. So I think that has helped me improve a lot.”
Then, from age 7, she rose quickly from the ranks, winning local and national tournaments, so much so that Tennis Canada took her in. Her biggest tennis achievement not related to her game might be chatting with Rafael Nadal at the Australian Open in 2022 (she was playing the juniors event) about how cold the ice baths were.
The year 2022 marked both a first big high, as she won her first professional title at the W25 of Saskatoon in August, and her first big low, as she suffered a tendon tear in her left knee at Wimbledon and then had to stop playing around October. She wouldn’t be back competing before March 2023. But in 2025, she’s been catching up in a very impressive way. Here’s our chat with the new Canadian phenom.
INTERVIEW: “It’s A Very Big And Fast Change For Me.”
Is there anything in particular in 2025 that you feel you've been doing well, that you've adjusted, that has allowed you to have so much success this year?
I didn't really do a lot last year. I was coming from injuries; I was training in Europe; I was far away from home, and I didn't actually get many opportunities to play close to home or a lot of tournaments in general. So I feel like when I started playing this year, I had a pretty busy schedule, so I was really pumped to play a lot of matches, and I was really excited just to get on the court and just play freely. New year, clean slate. I'm glad it's been going well, and hopefully, I can continue doing well as well. So far, so good.
How surprised are you, if you are, about those results, and can you describe what made it work so well for you through the first two months?
When all of that was happening, I wasn't super surprised because, of course, I want to win every match I play. Looking back on having achieved that, now it's kind of surprising for me. I would have never thought that I was gonna do something like that. The first two months, I felt like I had a lot of confidence with that winning streak. I felt very confident and comfortable with my game, so to continue like that was honestly really fun and really nice, and it gave me a better feeling of where I am with my game.
What was your reaction when you found out you were getting a wild card to Miami? Oh, I was so excited. I mean, it's a 1000, you know, it's right below the Grand Slam, but I was honestly just so grateful for the opportunity that I received. I'm really happy, and I was really excited.
Congrats on the start of 2025. We're all going to say that it's a fast rise for you, but does it feel that quick for you?
I want to go day by day, but obviously, my ranking has jumped a lot in the past couple of months. It’s a very big and fast change for me, and I’m going to start playing some higher-level tournaments. I’m honestly happy to be a little bit higher in the ranking and getting to play against much better players. You never know because everyone is moving up and down, but I am happy with where I am now, and obviously, I want to keep doing better, keep doing well.
Did you have the time to appreciate what's happening to you right now? As you’re in Miami, how impressed are you that you are to be a part of such a big event?
What I really appreciate the most right now in all of this is to be back with the federation in Montreal. I've been training there since the beginning of this year, working with such great coaches who are also great people to work with. They've been giving me so much confidence and comfort with my game. I really appreciate traveling with them and working with them because I feel like they've really brought out the best of what I can do on the court, and they've helped me polish my game and use my strengths to my advantage when I'm playing my matches.
“Playing a top 10 player, regardless of who it is, would be such a big opportunity. You get to showcase what you can do.”
And so now being in Miami, I'm very appreciative of this because it's a 1000, and I have the opportunity to play against the top players in the world, which is a very different level. So, to be able to compete with these players is honestly such a blessing for me, and I'm so excited to see what I can do and hopefully give some trouble out there.
Who are you most looking forward to playing against now that you're going to be playing some of the bigger stars?
Honestly, I didn't really think of anyone in particular, but maybe playing a top 10 player, regardless of who it is, would be such a big opportunity. You get to showcase what you can do. I don't think people know me here, so hopefully, when I play, I can really show what I can bring to the table and hopefully come up with the win.
How would you describe what a win streak like the one you went on does for your confidence?
It did a lot for my confidence, but at the same time, I also wanted to work on the things that were not perfect in my game. Nobody’s game is ever going to be 100% perfect. So it made me mentally tougher with myself, and I feel obviously good about myself, but at the end of the day, I still want to polish my game a little bit more. As I go up in the level, it's going to get harder and my weaknesses are going to get exploited a lot more, so to keep improving is also very important to me.
“This knee injury made me aware of how I needed to take care of my body a little bit more.”
What's the next step for you now after playing a lot on the ITF Tour?
I guess upgrading my overall game. Just to play against much higher ranked opponents. Everyone is only going to get better, faster, and hit harder, so I need to improve the serve movement and to prepare for that.
When you had this knee injury, did it change how you thought about the sport and your career in any way? Did you learn anything specific?
To have an injury that young is not very common, but it made me aware of how I needed to take care of my body a little bit more, made me learn to spend this extra tile warming up, to take that extra time to stretch, and it made me learn everything I can do to recover properly. It’s important to learn all of this when you’re younger because as you grow older, you don't want to make the same mistakes. I’ve now been feeling super healthy, but that doesn't mean I'm going to stop what I was doing to help prevent my injuries because, in sports, everyone is going to have an injury once in their lifetime.
It's about how you adapt to that and how you get to just accept that you're going to have injuries, but you need to also take care of yourself.
With the support of Tennis Canada, you've been able to train in Florida and in Belgium at the Justine Henin Academy. What do you think these different experiences of training brought to your game?
From having these opportunities to train at different places with different coaches, you get different views on how they see the game and how they see what you can do with your game. When I was in Europe, I was on clay a lot, so I felt I was improving my clay court game, which also helped me see how to build the points. It also helped me with my movement, so when I came back to hard courts, I felt faster and stronger on the court. But honestly, getting a lot of experience from different people around the world helped me expand my overall tennis knowledge. I feel that has helped me a lot.
“Getting a lot of experience from different people around the world helped me expand my overall tennis knowledge.”
How would you describe yourself as a player? What do you think are your biggest strengths?
I like to serve a lot. Having a big serve, especially in women's tennis, is really important to start the point being offensive. I like to be aggressive, and I like to dictate the court. I like to take to move my opponent a lot more; I like to come in. I wouldn't say I like to overpower my opponent because, the older I get, the women are getting stronger. But I do like to step in the court and take control with my forehand.
You chatted with Rafael Nadal in Melbourne in 2022 about the ice bath, which was a highlight of your young career. Now that you're in Miami with so many top players, is there anyone you’d like to chat with?
Rafael Nadal was super nice, and you could see a very human side of him, you know, even though you see him a lot on the TV and winning all his Slams. But now, I don’t know. One of my all-time favorites was Serena, but she doesn't really play anymore, so maybe someone like Aryna Sabalenka because she’s the World No.1 so that'd be pretty cool.
I saw something about how you struggled to get some of your trophies home…
Well, the first two tournaments I won, I was coming back from the Caribbean, and their plates, they were pretty big plates, so to get them through the airport, and the security was not very nice when they saw big trophies or big pieces of metal like that, so when it came time to bring them through airport security and customs, especially going international flight, it wasn't easy at all, to be honest, especially for my dad as well. I met up with him in Montreal, and he didn't have big luggage with him, so he had to bring it by hand. I heard he didn't have an easy experience either (she smiled).
On Thursday, your name came up in the press release from Team Tennis Canada that said you were on the BJK Cup team. How did you react to this?
So it's always possible that you get called to play for the country, and obviously, when I got selected to play for Team Canada, I was super excited. It's a big honor to play for the country, and especially playing abroad for your country, it's a super great feeling, carrying the flag on your back and trying to qualify to go to the finals. Being a part of this is super uplifting, and to play alongside such great players… I'm really excited about this, and I feel like I'm going to learn a lot.
This was a great interview! Mboko came across as a very impressive young lady. In watching her play against Coco in Madrid, I could see that her game is equally impressive!