Victoria Mboko eyes Grand Slams as ‘the sky’s the limit’ after Canadian Open fairytale

Victoria Mboko has produced one of the fairytale stories of the 2025 WTA Tour as she won her maiden title as a wildcard, but she hopes there is more to come as she continues to improve on and off the court.

The Canadian started the year at No 333 in the WTA Rankings, but she won five ITF titles between January and March to surge into the top 200 and then broke into the top 100 on the back of reaching the third round on her Grand Slam debut at Roland Garros.

But bigger and better things were still to come as she took her home event, the Canadian Open, by storm with a series of incredible wins over some of the biggest names on the WTA Tour.

After being handed a wildcard entry, Mboko upset 2020 Australian Open winner Sofia Kenin in the second round and caused an even bigger sensation in the fourth round when she defeated top seed and reigning French Open champion Coco Gauff in straight sets.

Next, see beat Jessica Bouzas Maneiro before taking out her third Grand Slam winner in Elena Rybakina in the semi-final. She faced former world No 1 and four-time major winner Naomi Osaka in the final and won 2-6, 6-4, 6-1 to win the WTA 1000 title.

Aged 18 at the time, Mboko joined the likes of Monica Seles, Steffi Graf, Maria Sharapova and Bianca Andreescu to win a WTA 1000 tournament as a wildcard.

That title has put her in the spotlight as she has gone from a relatively unknown teenager to gracing her first magazine cover as she features on the latest Rolling Stone Africa magazine.

“It feels amazing to be mentioned alongside players like Monica Seles, Steffi Graf, Sharapova, and Bianca,” she said in the interview with RSA.

“Being associated with them is really special, and it shows the kind of incredible careers they’ve had. That gives me a lot of hope and motivation for my own journey, because I also want to build a great career and be the best I can be. For me, this moment is a really important stepping stone.”

Mboko surged into the top 30 with her Canadian Open run and she currently sits at a career-high No 23, but there is no doubt that she has the ability to climb even further in the rankings and achieve more title success on the WTA Tour.

“There are so many milestones I hope to achieve. Winning a Grand Slam or becoming world number one would always be a huge blessing, but I know there’s a process to reaching those goals, and sometimes you never know how early opportunities might come,” Mboko said.

“Every day, I focus on improving, both on and off the court. Ultimately, I think it’s important to dream big, and hopefully one day winning a Grand Slam will be part of that journey.”