Victoria Mboko: Canadian teen lighting up Paris

It’s been an extraordinary rise for Mboko, the daughter of Congolese parents and the youngest of four tennis-playing siblings.

She won her first four ITF tournaments of the season without dropping a set, building streaks of 20 consecutive match wins and 40 consecutive sets won. In early March she won a fifth ITF title in Porto, Portugal.

She earned a wildcard into the Miami Open – just the second WTA main draw of her career – where she upset Camila Osorio for her first tour-level victory.

Representing Canada in the Billie Jean King Cup Qualifiers, she went undefeated in singles play, and later qualified for the WTA 1000 tournament in Rome, where she pushed Coco Gauff to three sets in the second round.

“Victoria played great tennis. She forced me to play like that. So full credit to her,” Gauff said after her entertaining 3-6 6-2 6-1 win.

“First I saw her [was at the] Miami Open. I didn't know much about her before, but I've been following her since Miami. I think she's a great player. I knew it was going to be a tough match. Like the ranking difference looks different, but she's playing top-level tennis.

“She obviously has a great game… For sure on the movement, I would say she's up there with me on that.”

High praise indeed, from the world No.2 and one of the game’s great athletes.

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