In a remarkable tennis story for the ages, Victoria Mboko of Burlington, Ontario is a WTA 1000 series champion. On Thursday, as a rookie on the WTA Tour, she won the 2025 National Bank Open at IGA Stadium in Montreal, Quebec. In the final, Mboko defeated Japan’s Naomi Osaka 2-6, 6-4, 6-1.
Mboko becomes the third Canadian woman in the Open Era to win the National Bank Open. She follows Faye Urban of Windsor, Ontario in 1969, and Bianca Andreescu of Mississauga, Ontario in 2019.
In the final, Mboko won 82% of her first serve points, and had four aces, compared to only one for Osaka. Mboko saw Osaka’s serve exceptionally well, as she broke Osaka eight times on nine opportunities.
What we will also remember most about Mboko’s National Bank Open run this year were the quality of the opponents she beat. She beat four grand slam champions. Mboko beat 2020 Australian Open champion Sofia Kenin of the United States 6-2, 6-3 in the second round, steamrolled past two-time grand slam champion and the first seed Coco Gauff of the United States 6-1, 6-4 in the fourth round, and beat 2022 Wimbledon champion Elena Rybakina of Kazakhstan, 1-6, 7-5, 7-6 in the semifinals. Osaka is a four-time grand slam champion as she has won the United States Open and Australian Open two times each.