The last time we saw Victoria Mboko on a tennis court, she raised the trophy of her home tournament for a raw crowd in Montreal.
The days that Mboko is a starting player are now behind her.
The Canadian, who turns 19 on Tuesday, is firmly on the radar of tennis fans after conquering the National Bank Openly presented by Rogers. Mboko, who started 2025 outside the top 300, enters the US Open Main Draw on Sunday as the number 22 seed in the ladies’ stretch.
Her reward for being for the first time in a placed player in an event at tour level? A first round collision with two-time Grand Slam champion Barbora Krejcikova on Monday at 11 am et / 8 hours PT in Louis Armstrong Stadium with 14,000 seats (the second largest court in the facility)
The Czech player, who won Wimbledon and the French Open in 2021 last year, has slipped to number 61 in the ranking list. A back injury kept her open from the Australian and then she had consecutive ho-humans at the last two Majors (loss of the second round at French Open, the third round defeat at Wimbledon).
But there was an increase last week when the former world no. 2 won three games in Cincinnati, including a upset of no. 10 seed Elina Svotilina.
In the meantime, Mboko withdrew from Cincinnati after her remarkable Triumph Montreal. She sustained a wrist injury after a semi-final that forced her to get an MRI (no structural damage) on the morning of the champion match against four-time Grand SLAM champion Naomi Osaka.
Krejcikova has not been great in the US Open recently and won only three games after a career-best quarterfinals in 2021 in the last three years.
But she is still a very formidable enemy for Mboko, who does not have the same home court that seemed to lift her when the times became difficult in Montreal.
Here is a look at other big storylines on the last Grand Slam of the Year:
Can Canadian men perform on a large stage?
Felix Auger-Aliassime, Denis Shapovalov and Gabriel Diallo have combined this season for five tournament titles, but it has not been the same story at Majors.
In the first three Grand Slams they have only achieved seven competition victories, without impressions on the third round.
After the three players combined for only one victory at the National Bank Open in Toronto, Auger-Aliassime made a run to the Cincinnati Open quarterfinals, where he was drunk 6-2 by top seed Jannik Sinner. Diallo also lost against the Italian in the third round and dropped a second set of tiebreak, while Shapovalov was one-and-done in Ohio.
All three of the Canadian men are placed in New York.
The 25th placed Auger-Aliassy is confronted with Lucky Loser and World No. 151 Billy Harris of Great Britain in his opener. No. 3 Seed Alexander Zverev hides like a potential match on the third round.
The 27th placed Shapovalov is celebrating with the Hungarian veteran Marton Fucsovics, De Wereld no. 94, in the first round. Their career series is 2-2 bound. Sinner is a potential opponent of the third round for the winner.
Diallo is placed for the first time at a Grand Slam and comes in at number 31. He will be confronted with World No. 60 Damir Dzumhur van Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Diallo made his US open debut after the qualification of last year and then reached the third round.
Leyla Fernandez from Canada has great memories of the Big Apple and records her career height when she reached the 2021 US Open Final.
Since then she has not been able to reach those heights, with her on the second best Grand Slam that was a quarter -final berth on the French Open 2022.
Fernandez seemed to win some momentum by winning the Citi Open title in Washington last month, but then she lost her first game in both Montreal and Cincinnati.
The 31st placed Fernandez will be confronted with qualifying Rebecca Marino from Vancouver in a rare All-Canadian confrontation during a Grand Slam in the opening round on Sunday. Marino, arranged as 119th in the world, will be looking for her first competition victory at a major since he opened the third round of the US in 2022. Marino won their only earlier meeting on a hard court in Mexico in 2022.
Top seeds Aryna Sabalenka from Belarus was able to go opposite the Fernandez-Marino winner in the third round.
Sabalenka and Sinner captured last year only a few weeks before the upper hand on Hardcourts in Cincinnati.
Poland Iga Swiatek and the Carlos Alcaraz of Spain hope that the trend will take place this year after taking the Cinci titles on Monday.
Alcaraz, second in New York, caught a break when the sinner retired due to illness after he had hit 5-0 in the final of Cincinnati.
Alcaraz and Sinner have combined to win the last seven Grand Slam championships, with the two squares in a few compelling finals this year in the French Open (won by Alcaraz) and Wimbledon (where Sinner triumphed).
Alcaraz has a potentially difficult US Open First-Rounder against Harding-American Reilly Opelka Opelka in Arthur Ashe Stadium on Monday evening.
Swiatek, who comes from a Wimbledon title, a Cincinnati triumph over Jasmine Paolini and an appearance in the US Open Mixed Doubles Final with Casper Ruud, is sown behind Sabalenka while haunting her seventh career Grand Slam title.
Swiatek is in the bottom half of the draw with wrestling French open champion Coco Gauff and Australian Open -winner Madison Keys. Those two Americans, together with No. 4 Seed Jessica Pegula, have not found their best rhythm in the summer-court season.
In the meantime, Sabalenka could come across Denmark’s Clara Tauson in the fourth round and Kazakhstan’s Elena Rybakina in the quarterfinals. This year, both players have victories over Sabalenka and Tauson and Rybakina also reached the Montreal Semis.
Just like Mboko, Osaka Cincinnati skipped after her run to the Montreal final.
The Japanese star naturally criticized because he did not recognize Mboko in her short on-Court speech after the Canadian meeting to win the NBO Championship match. She did not speak with reporters before she apologized the next day at Mboko in a post post post.
Zaaig 23rd After her breakthrough performance in Canada, Osaka opens the US Open against Greet Minnen of Belgium. Osaka, who took 2023 from tour while he became a mother, won the US Open in 2018 and 20.
The body language of Osaka was bad when the momentum shifted in the NBO final. We will see how she reacts here.
While Alcaraz and Sinner men have taken over tennis, Novak Djokovic took a bit of a rear seat at the age of 38.
But don’t forget that Djokovic Alcaraz has defeated to win Olympic gold last year and is the last other player than Alcaraz and Sinner who won a Grand Slam – on the US Open 2023.
The 24-way Grand SLAM champion, who threw a first throw this week at a New York Yankees competition, will be sown seventh this year.
He opens against the rising American teenage leather ten, a left -handed, under the lights in Arthur Ashe Stadium on Sunday evening.
Ten reached the fourth round on the Australian Open and defeated Daniil Medvedev en route, and also cracked the round of 16 at the NBO, where he eliminated Shapovalov.
Expect that the American crowd will really come behind their husbands if he is successful against Djokovic.
At the age of 45, Venus Williams has not yet closed the books about competitive tennis. The American star won one match on the Citi open before he lost in the opening round in Cincinnati.
The US Open gave Williams a wildcard and she draws no. 11 seed Karolina Muchova in the opening round on Monday evening.
Muchova has reached the semi -final in New York for the past two years. She defeated Williams in their only career meeting in the opening round of the US Open in 2020.
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