World number 13 Victoria Mboko proves that last season’s breakthrough was just the beginning. The 19-year-old Canadian continued her meteoric rise by reaching her second WTA 1000 final with a 6-3 6-2 victory over Yelena Ostapenko at the Qatar TotalEnergies Open. The performance underlined how quickly Mboko has gone from emerging talent to a real contender at the top of women’s football.
Mboko first attracted global attention in 2025, when she stunned the Montreal court to claim her first WTA 1000 title. Since then, her rise has been relentless. After starting last season outside the top 300, she rose in the rankings and is still in the rankings today guaranteed a place in the Top 10 of the world no matter what happens in the final.
Her Doha campaign was anything but easy. Mboko battled past fellow teenage star Mirra Andreeva and then eliminated Australian Open champion Elena Rybakina, setting up a semi-final with Ostapenko – last year’s runner-up and the tournament’s all-time leader in match wins, with 24 wins at the Qatar TotalEnergies Open since its launch in 2001.
The match did not start in Mboko’s favor. Ostapenko broke early and looked determined to dictate the game, but the Canadian quickly recalibrated, erasing the deficit and seizing control at 2-2. From there she dictated the pace and took the opening set by winning four of the next five games.
Once in the lead, Mboko’s authority was unmistakable. Her penetrating groundstrokes, highlighted by a devastating backhand, repeatedly forced Ostapenko onto the defensive. The second set was largely on Mboko’s terms, and although she briefly missed her first chance to close out the match, she finished the job moments later without letting the momentum flag.
Standing between Mboko and a second WTA 1000 title is Karolina Muchova or Maria Sakkari.
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