Teenager Victoria Mboko upsets Naomi Osaka to win Canadian Open

Starting the week well outside the top 50 of the rankings, Mboko stunned Grand Slam winner after Grand Slam winner at her home WTA 1000 event as she captured her first-ever title.

The teenager defeated 2020 Australian Open winner Sofia Kenin in the second round, two-time major champion and top seed Coco Gauff in the fourth round, 2022 Wimbledon winner Elena Rybakina in the semi-final and now four-time Grand Slam winner Osaka in the final.

Former world No. 1 Osaka dominated early on with two breaks in the first set, but both players struggled on serve in the second set with seven breaks of serve as Mboko edged that count 4-3 to take it to a decider where she won the final five games of the match to secure a 2-6, 6-4, 6-1 victory.

"These past two weeks have been insane," the title winner said.

"Even getting the wildcard to play here ⦠I was super happy to be playing in Montreal for the first time ever. I just remember feeling nervous, but really taking in the moment as much as I possibly could.

"When I won my first round, I was super happy and super content. I would have never thought that I would have made it to the final let alone win the tournament.

"I have so many emotions going through my head, I can't even express it."

Youngster Mboko started the 2025 season at No. 333, but a series of impressive results saw her reach a career-high No. 85 before the tournament with 836 points.

But she has now surged 60 places to No. 25 in the WTA Rankings after earning 999 points for her title run to take her overall tally to 1,835.

Players who win WTA 1000 events earn 1,000 points, but they also drop points from the corresponding event 12 months ago, as the WTA uses a 52-week rolling, cumulative system.

The Canadian played in an ITF event in 2024, but lost in the first round so she only had one point to defend, thus earning 999 points.

She is now set to be seeded at the US Open along with Osaka, who sits one place ahead of her at No. 24 in the Live Rankings.

Four-time major champion Osaka started the fortnight at No. 49 in the WTA Rankings with 1,214 points, but she has climbed 25 places after picking up 650 points to move to 1,864.

Mboko started the WTA 1000 tournament in Montreal with career earnings of $458,001 with $396,293 of that coming from her 2025 season alone. Her biggest pay day to date came at the French Open where she earned $195,000 for reaching the third round.

But she has earned nearly double her career earnings with her Canada win as she picked up a prize cheque of $752,275. Not bad for an 18-year-old as she has taken her career tally to $1,2m.

The 27-year-old Naomi Osaka was 21st on the all-time earnings list before the Canada event with $22,772,890 and she has broken through the $23m mark with her $391,600 cheque.

The former world No. 1 "only" needs another $9m to break into the top 10 of the all-time list as Angelique Kerber currently occupies that position with $32,519,180.

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