How Did Canadian Open Witness Mboko's Shocking Victory Over Osaka?

Synopsis
Key Takeaways
- Victoria Mboko wins her first WTA 1000 title.
- Defeated Naomi Osaka in the final.
- Achieved a career-high ranking at no. 25.
- First Canadian to beat four Grand Slam champions in a single WTA event.
- Second-lowest ranked player to win a WTA 1000 title.
Montreal, Aug 8 (NationPress) An 18-year-old Canadian wild card Victoria Mboko shocked four-time Grand Slam champion Naomi Osaka with a score of 2-6, 6-4, 6-1, securing her inaugural WTA 1000 title on home turf at the Canadian Open.
After losing the first set in the final match, Mboko demonstrated her determination and tenacity, breaking Osaka in the opening game of the second set. This moment seemed to disrupt Osaka’s rhythm, despite her managing to break back twice during that frame.
Mboko seized her momentum in the decisive set, gliding to victory against a visibly disheartened opponent, achieving what felt like a predestined triumph as soon as she arrived in Montreal.
This win propels Mboko to a career-best ranking of no. 25 on the WTA leaderboard, ensuring her a seeded position at a Grand Slam in New York later this month. Since 1970, she has become the second Canadian semifinalist, finalist, and champion at the Canadian Open, following Bianca Andreescu in 2019.
Entering the tournament ranked 85th in the world, her victory makes her the second-lowest ranked player to clinch a Tier I / WTA 1000 title since the format was established in 1990.
She is the second player since 2009 to secure her first title at a WTA 1000 event. Mboko is also the second wild card to win the National Bank Open, following Monica Seles in 1995.
Her remarkable journey included four victories over Grand Slam champions -- Sofia Kenin, Coco Gauff, Elena Rybakina, and Osaka. Gauff and Rybakina were seeded No. 1 and No. 3 respectively. This is the first occasion that such a feat has been achieved in a single tournament since Ons Jabeur and Elina Svitolina at Wimbledon 2023, although they were not teenagers. Mboko is the second-youngest player in history to defeat four Grand Slam champions in a single WTA event in the Open Era, with the first being Serena Williams in 1999.
This 18-year-old is the first Canadian woman to confront four former Women’s Singles Grand Slam champions and the first to triumph over all four within a single WTA event in the Open Era.