By Richard Pagliaro | Thursday, August 7, 2025
Photo credit: Omnium Banque Nationale Facebook

A diving Victoria Mboko hurled herself at the ball, flicking a flying reply unleashing a resounding roar from Montreal fans.

The Canadian wild card crashed to the court chasing a dropper in wrapping a wild ride. Mboko scored a stunning 2-6, 6-4, 6-1 win over a detached Naomi Osaka to capture her maiden championship in a fairy-tale finish to the Omnium Banque Nationale Open.

The 18-year-old Mboko took home fans on a thrill ride that was unpredictable, unruly and downright ugly at times as former world No. 1 Osaka mentally unraveled in the face of the teenager’s fierce competitiveness, roaring crowd support and her own self-sabotage.

It ended with a crash landing and will go down as a historic flight. Mboko is the second-youngest woman in WTA history to defeat four Grand Slam champion—Sofia Kenin, Coco Gauff, Elena Rybakina and Osaka—en route to a championship. Only legendary Serena Williams, who was a 17-year-old dynamo clad in canary-colored Puma dress when she knocked off four major champions, including world No. 1 Martina Hingis to win the 1999 US Open, was younger.

The explosive Mboko is the third wild card to win a WTA 1000 championship following soon-to-be Hall of Famer Maria Sharapova (2011 Cincinnati) and compatriot Bianca Andreescu (2019 Indian Wells). Playing with a sore wrist she sustained falling to the court in her semifinal win over Rybakina, Mboko refused to let pain or pressure slow her roll.

“It feels unbelievable right now. I mean, words cannot really describe how today
went,” Mboko told the media in Montreal. “Today was such an eventful day actually. I woke up this morning, and I actually had my wrist a little bit swollen from yesterday’s fall, and we quickly went to the
hospital actually to do an MRI and an X-ray before I came to the courts to practice today.

“So once we got the green light that nothing too serious was going on in the wrist, I came here and practiced real fast and prepared for my match. So I think today regarding all
the events that I did, it feels a lot sweeter.”

World No. 85 Mboko, who was ranked No. 358 a year ago, is the second-lowest ranked woman to win a WTA 1000 title after No. 133 Kim Clijsters, who won the 2005 Indian Wells championship.

In the end, the net divided an immense emotional expanse between four-time major champion Osaka and first-time finalist Mboko. 

The teenager played with more poise and deeper desire than a disconsolate Osaka, who incurred a code violation for belting a ball into the stands, appeared annoyed by her opponent toweling off as she was set to serve and looked vacant at the very end. 

A determined Mboko flew through the final five games dropping to her knees in exhilaration after earning a two hour, four-minute triumph.

Truth be told it was a bizarre final popping with some brilliant shot-making from both and periods where neither woman could seem to keep the ball between the lines for sustained stretches. Mboko overcame 13 double faults and a 27 percent second-serve percentage, while Osaka often had her opponent on defense only to sail the kill shot in several instances.  Mboko converted seven of eight break points and applied her speed and determination to extend points and her knack for the down the line strike to exterminate them.

The winning moment ✨

Victoria Mboko captures her first WTA title in Montreal, defeating Osaka 2-6, 6-4, 6-1.#OBN25 pic.twitter.com/OveLB47YMZ

— wta (@WTA) August 8, 2025

At times, this final was like watching virtuoso musicians hit pitch perfect high notes then shriek through stretches of atonal music.

Yet, Mboko showed her grit, guts and star power riding a wave of support that overwhelmed Osaka into fretful frustration. 

At the outset, Osaka delivered a dose of forehand medicine to Mboko that she received from Liudmila Samsonova in round two. 

In her 4-6, 7-6(6), 6-3 comeback conquest of 13th-seeded Samsonova, Osaka was getting beaten repeatedly in crosscourt exchanges for a set and a half. The Japanese was sometimes taking one big step rather than the short, precise preparation steps to give herself ideal spacing between her body and the ball.

Tonight, Osaka came out straddling the baseline ripping crosscourt forehands basically telling the teenager: let’s see if you can hang and bang in crosscourt forehand fireworks. 

Showing the shotmaking that made her a two-time US Open champion, Osaka fired a forehand down the line streaking to a 4-1 lead. Whipping forehands with menacing intent, Osaka broke again to take the opener in 37 minutes.

The world No. 49 seemed to be in control, but soon Mboko’s speed and persistence and the crowd’s growing participation spooked Osaka into strange and sour places. 

Facing a red-hot, fearless opponent, thousands of screaming Canadian fans and the prospect of winning her biggest title in four years all amped up the angst Osaka was feeling. That’s completely understandable. 

Still, if you’re as experienced as Osaka you cannot be wishing balls out as she did a couple of times pointing to marks she thought were wide on balls that actually landed inside the sideline. You’ve got to play the actual call and not the call you hope to hear—yet it showed the nerves the Japanese superstar was feeling even up a set.

When Osaka dropped serve for the second straight time to fall behind 1-2 in the second set she dropped her blue Yonex stick to the court in a visible show of frustration.

Across the net, the 18-year-old Mboko meant business. After blowing a 40-15 lead and double-faulting back the break in the fourth game, Mboko blasted a big return to break again for 3-2—the sixth straight break of this hard-hitting final.

Shaking off a double fault, Mboko geared into groove drawing a wild forehand error to hold at 30 for 4-2—the first hold since Osaka went up 5-2 in the opening set.

A rattled Osaka was staring up at the sky as if searching for answers from above, while Mboko raced through a love break extending her lead to 5-2. 

Cutting a forlorn figure as she paced near the back wall, Osaka looked dejected. Then Mboko threw her a life line. 

The teenager totally lost her serve motion spit up three double faults and watched Osaka rope a return down the line to break back in the eighth game. Osaka whipped the wide serve stamping her first hold of the set for 4-5 and shifting pressure back on Mboko’s shoulders.

After asking her coaching box for advice on serve, Mboko took pace off the serve. That approach worked as she rallied from 15-30 down winning three points in a row to snatch a jittery and wild second set and force a decider after 82 minutes of play.

“Naomi came out playing really great tennis,” Mboko said. “I think she always had that aggressive kind of
game style, and I knew she was that good of a player. When I lost the first set, I kind of told myself to regroup a little bit and start fresh. I knew she was going to — going into the second set, I knew she was going to also keep playing aggressive, so I kind of had to rely on my
defending skills most of the match.

“Since she hits such a powerful ball, it was really hard for me to kind of replicate what she was putting in through. But I think at the end of the day I just did everything I possibly could to pull through the match, and thankfully I came out for the win.”

Despite dumping 12 double faults through two sets, the wild card was one set from her first career title. Osaka left the court to reset before the decider. 

In retrospect that break was a big mistake as Mboko spent the down time hitting practice serves and finding her groove while Osaka was trying to set her mind back on track.

Just when you thought a crazy final couldn’t possibly get more unstable, it did. Both women double faulted away breaks to start the final set. Osaka squandered a 30-15 lead, then belted a ball into the stands, incurring a code violation warning for ball abuse as Mboko converted her sixth break edging ahead 2-1.

Throughout this magical Montreal run, Mboko’s poise under pressure, creativity on the run and sheer resilience have been her super-powers. She showed all of that in a draining fourth game. 

Dripping sweat, Mboko fought off four break points in a dramatic six-deuce game dabbing a dropper to hold for 3-1 as the entire stadium seemed to rise to its collective feet roaring.

If you’ve watched Osaka win any of her four Grand Slams you know she can be a premier power player with a knack for the devastating first strike. 

This final reinforced the fact for all her wondrous gifts as a ball striker, Osaka’s aversion to the net remains a vulnerability. Time and time again, Osaka had the teenager on the move in the fifth game, but stubbornly remained stuck to the baseline trying to squeeze shots closer to the lines. In the end she hit herself into oblivion as Mboko broke a seventh time for 4-1.

Mentally, Mboko was soaring on this magical flight and Osaka was grounded in misery.

When Osaka tapped a casual drop shot, a soaring Mboko raced forward went full dive and crashed to the court flicking a forehand and losing her Wilson racquet in the process. The chair umpire called for a replay to make sure Mboko got it on one bounce, but Osaka, who looked like she just wanted to get off the court, didn’t even wait and played through that request.

“In that game I was, like, Oh, I’m super close. At that point I had the fighting mentality,” Mboko said. “I
just wanted to run and put as many balls back in the court as possible. I wanted it so badly that I think falling was a little bit worth it.

“I mean, in that situation I wanted to just stay in there with her. Naomi was playing such aggressive, and she was hitting some pretty clean shots. So I wanted to run and retrieve everything that even didn’t seem possible.”

Mboko completed a magical run dropping to her knees as Osaka came around the net to offer congratulations. Back in 2018, Osaka overcame legendary Serena Williams and 23,000 screaming American fans in Arthur Ashe Stadium to win the US Open in a moment she called “bittersweet”.

Tonight, it felt like a bit of a role reversal with Mboko riding the wave of Canadian crowd support and Osaka looking positively muted by the end. 

This victory vaults Mboko past compatriot and Washington, DC champion Leylah Fernandez to No. 25 as the highest-ranked Canadian woman. Mboko said afterward she will skip Cincinnati to rest her sore wrist and prepare for the US Open. Despite the disappointing finish, Osaka rises to No. 24 in the rankings.

There’s a lot to like about Mboko’s game and her commitment to the cause and based on what we saw tonight both women will be dangerous threats at this month’s US Open.