Who is Victoria Mboko, the 18-year-old Canadian who faces Naomi Osaka in the Canadian Open final?

Victoria Mboko is looking to become the first Canadian to win the National Bank Open since Bianca Andreescu in 2019.

Victoria Mboko didn’t even have a picture on the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) website before the Canadian Open in Montreal. Now, the 18-year-old is set to face four-time grand slam champion Naomi Osaka in the first WTA Tour final of her career.

Facing the brink of elimination in the semifinal against 2022 Wimbledon champion Elena Rybakina, the wild card entry saved match point and was forced to take a medical timeout for a wrist injury all within the third set before the Canadian crowd spurred the hometown teenage phenom to a 1-6, 7-5, 7-6(4) comeback win.

Mboko’s road to the final required victories over 2025 French Open winner Coco Gauff, Sofia Kenin and Rybakina – that trio comprising four grand slam singles titles – to make her the first Canadian to dispatch three grand slam champions in a single WTA Tour event in the Open Era.

She’s also the youngest Canadian woman to reach the final of the country’s hallmark tournament and only the fourth to ever do so.

Add to that, Mboko is only the third wild card to reach the Canadian Open women’s final, joining the likes of former world No. 1s Monica Seles, who did it in 1995, and Simona Halep, who achieved the feat in 2015, per the WTA. Not bad company to be in.

At the end of 2024, Mboko’s ranking was at No. 350. She reached her highest ranking of 85 late last month. Now, she’s assured to be one of the top 40 players in the world, no matter Thursday night’s result.

Mboko’s only other experience in a final came at the Parma Open, a lower-tier WTA 125 tournament, where she finished runner-up in May.

“No words can even describe how I feel right now. You know, nothing would’ve ever prepared me to be in the final. If you would’ve told me last year that I was gonna be in the final here, I would’ve said, ‘You’re crazy,’” Mboko said, smiling, after her semifinal victory.

Canadian flags, “Allez Vicky” signs, and giant cardboard cut-outs of Mboko’s face flooded the raucous stands at IGA Stadium on Wednesday. No doubt the crowd is just as rocking when their fellow countrywoman wonderkid takes center court for the biggest test of her career Thursday evening.

North Carolina born, Toronto raised

Born August 26, 2006, in North Carolina to parents who had emigrated from the Democratic Republic of the Congo in the late 1990s, the family moved to Toronto when she was a child. The youngest of four siblings, Mboko picked up her own racket at the age of 3, having been inspired by her three tennis-playing siblings, according to the WTA.

And in a full circle moment, the 18-year-old told the WTA earlier this summer she used to attend the Canadian Open with her brothers and sister as a child.

Her family’s support is a driving factor in her young career; in fact, she’ll look for them in the stands when she feels nervous. “Family brings us a sort of comfort that like no one else can kind of replicate,” she said in a WTA feature.

Known for her powerful play and movement on the court, it’s her mentality that seems well beyond her 18 years.

“I’ve been in situations where the score was tight and I kind of panicked a little bit, but I really wanted to calm myself down and just forget about the last point and always focus on the next,” the teenager said about rallying back in her semifinal victory.

2017 U.S. Open champion Sloane Stephens is enthusiastic about Mboko’s future having watched the teen at this year’s French Open. Stephens told CNN Sports, “I want her to have all the resources she possibly can to be the best player she can be.

“We see her now … I think she can be a grand slam champion. I think she could probably be number one in the world.”