Montreal – While a sold -out crowd roared his approval to greet the winner, Victoria Mboko dropped her racket and put her hands over her face.
This was not teenage dream. What Mboko does is a wonderful reality for Canadian tennis fans.
The 18-year-old from Burlington, Ont. took the biggest victory of her rapidly rising career for a raw audience here on Saturday, crushed top seeds Coco Gauff 6-1, 6-4 in a 62-minute demolition at the National Bank Open by Rogers.
“I don’t even know what to say,” said Mboko reporters about an hour after booking a place in Monday’s quarterfinals in Iga Stadium. “I was a bit shocked about it. Everything that came so fast. There were so many people. I have the feeling that tonight I will soak it a bit more, but I am still a bit on the high.
“I am super happy, and I am just very satisfied with how it went today and that I go to the next round.”
Mboko finished the world No. 2 in 62 minutes and ended it with a break as an error -sensitive Gauff who put the last recording in the Net. No other Canadian, on the men’s side in Toronto or here, passed the third round at the NBO. Mboko is only three victories away from the title in her seventh career WTA Tour Main Draw.
She will face Jessica Bouzas Maleiro from Spain on Monday in the quarterfinals on Monday.
Gauff won a three-setter against Mboko on Clay in Rome in the spring and took the last two sets decisively after the fast start of the Canadian. But this time Mboko refused to get her foot from the accelerator pedal. She converted to four of the five breaking point options, marked by Match Point, and fought all four of Gauff’s opportunities to break the powerful Serve of Mboko.
“I had a little flashbacks when I played her a bit in Rome,” said Mboko. “I just remember that she played even better and played even better and stepped a little better when I played her in Europe, I thought about it. I wanted to pick up my game a little more and make sure that I matched everything she produced, and I wanted to stay with her.”
Do you remember that the Canadian Denis Shapovalov the then World No. 2 Rafael Nadal surprised in a third set of Tiebreak here in 2017? This produced the same kind of enthusiasm in the stands – although with much less tension. Given how good Mboko played in four games this week and for a year in which she is now a dominant 50-9-side with many races from the spotlights under the Tour Level it clear that the Canadian had this kind of level in her.
The line -up to go into the stadium before the game was huge after the day session went long. But the fact that the game started about an hour after originally planned, nobody dampens the spirits.
“Let’s go Vicky” Zaalenangen were loud and proud during the game. The crowd of Montreal outdoors its trademark ‘Ole, Ole, Ole’ Chant, mostly heard during large Canadiens versions, after the game in an absolute electric scene on Center Court.
“That is the bonus of playing at home, I train here too,” Mboko told Sportnet’s Danielle Michaud after the game. “Sometimes I hit midfield and I suggested that I played the Canadian open here.”
Mboko presented her strength and serious serve and was relentless against the double Grand SLAM champion. She is now 24-8 against players who are ranked higher this year than her.
When Gauff did not hit the ball in the net, Mboko unleashed the discouraging serve (she won 79.3 percent of the points when she first served her) and punishing foundations.
The successful attack mode of Mboko enabled her to escape from any form of problems, even when Gauff found her rhythm briefly with her movement and defense. She was the first player who did not drop a match against Gauff this year.
Gauff was not at her best this week, 37 times double mistakes in her first two games and spent more time on the field in a few three sets of competitions (she got a first round bye) than Mboko did in three games.
Yet this was clinical.
“I knew in Rome when I played her, it would be a tough game, and that was it,” said Gauff, stylish in defeat. “I knew it would be difficult today, and she plays tennis at a high level. I think that has been shown today. I think she was the better player today.”
Mboko is outside the top 300 and is now expected to rise at least 30 places to approximately no. 55 next week. And whoever means it stops there, because Mboko can continue to climb with more victories in Montreal.
She is the youngest Canadian quarter finalist at the event since Helen Kelesi in 1987. And she is the first Canadian quarter -finalist since Bianca Andreescu won it all in Toronto in 2019.
“Her turnout was downright incredible,” said Eugenie Bouchard, who just retired this week as a player, Saturday before the game on the Sportsnet panel. “But everyone who knew her in Canadian tennis would not be surprised. She has so much power in her game. I remember that I practiced with her when she was 14, 15 years old. She hit Forehand and blow me off the field. We all knew she would be really good.
“Happy to see it happening at such a big event like this. She seems to be really tackling the moment. Sometimes playing can cause a little busy at home, a little stress. I both felt in my career, sometimes it motivated me, sometimes it was a bit harder. But she just takes it all the way in the hallway and uses it as a motivation.”
Only eight days ago Mboko actually looked her age when he was eating out with the former second Wimbledon-Tweede and some fellow Canadian players.
“She looked at the menu and she looked at me and she was like” what does market price mean? “” Bouchard said with a smile. “And I was like she’s such a child, this is so cute. Then you see her on the field and she uses it as if she has done that 100 times.”
The days that Mboko is surprised are now over, and that is a new challenge.
But it would be unwise to bet against her. Gauff said that she sees a player “certainly with a very bright future.”
And Mboko sounds like a seasoned professional when she asks how she deals with this success.
“I have done exactly the same thing I did every other day. I like to keep the same routine as I am in a tournament. I think that is a bit superstitious, but I just love to keep everything super simple.”
What is not super simple is trying to beat Mboko – as Gauff and 49 other opponents discovered in 2025.
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