Coco Gauff’s recent run has been a rollercoaster. After conquering clay and storming past Aryna Sabalenka to win Roland Garros, the American star faded fast, crashing out in Wimbledon’s first round and stumbling through the Canadian Open with a pile of double faults. Despite scraping through early rounds, the cracks were clear. And then came Victoria Mboko. The Canadian teen sensation seized her moment, dealing the knockout blow and sending Gauff packing in stunning fashion. Now, with the spotlight burning bright, Mboko spills the beans behind toppling the World No. 2, marking a seismic shift in Montreal’s tennis narrative.
When asked to capture the magic of beating Coco Gauff the top seed in Montreal, after the match, Victoria Mboko could hardly contain her emotions. “Oh my god. I really don’t know what to say,” she began, still breathless from the moment. “I mean, before the match, I was quite a bit nervous ‘cause I actually played her before in Rome, and I just know how great of a player she is.” That memory clearly loomed large, but Mboko came prepared. “So coming into the match, I was so locked in and yeah, I tried to keep my composure as much as I could, especially playing in front of so many people. This is a very special experience for me and I don’t even know right now.”
The Rome match, their earlier clay-court battle, left its mark. Mboko had drawn first blood there by winning the opening set, only for Gauff to rally back. So when she took the first set this time on a Canadian hard court, the déjà vu was real. “So I mean, when I actually won the first set here, I kind of had a flashback into what was going on when I played her in Rome,” she recalled. “So I was like, okay, you need to step it up a level, you need to stay in there with her, she’s such a fighter and I know that.” This time, though, she dug deep, and held firm.
“So I just wanted to stay solid,” Victoria Mboko said. “And I wanted to be right there with her and take as many opportunities as I could. Yeah, at the end of the day, it really went into my favor.” Every point was earned, every game a battle. And as the crowd roared, Mboko thrived, feeding off the energy and delivering a performance that made headlines across the sport.
“That’s the bonus of playing at home, I also train here. Sometimes I’ve been hitting on the Centre Court and I used to envision myself playing the Canadian Open here.”
Canadian Victoria Mboko joins @SNMichaud to reflect on her upset win over top seed Coco Gauff. pic.twitter.com/jTd22T1KST
— Sportsnet (@Sportsnet) August 3, 2025
When reminded of Bianca Andreescu, the last Canadian to win this event in 2019, and how fan support fueled her title run, Mboko smiled. “It’s super important for me; it’s been helping me so much. The crowd—it’s been amazing. I never had so many people cheer for me too, so that’s a bonus of playing at home, you know.” She revealed how she’d visualized this moment long before it happened. “I also train here. So sometimes, I have been hitting at the centre court and I’m like envisioning myself like playing actually the Canadian Open here. So little manifestation here and there, and you never know when it’s going to come, and so happy that it came today.”
Her racquet dropped, her hands flew to her face, and disbelief washed over her as the crowd erupted to its feet. In that electric moment, Victoria Mboko, Canada’s rising 18-year-old wild card, had just stunned the tennis world. Under the lights at the Omnium Banque Nationale, she dismantled top seed Coco Gauff 6-1, 6-4 in just over an hour to punch her ticket to Monday’s quarterfinals.
Mboko, now the youngest woman to reach the elite eight here since Gauff did it three years ago, wasn’t just winning, she was rewriting the script. As the roar subsided, she not only won but also broke some major records at the age of 18.
Victoria Mboko breaks records in stunning Gauff upset
Victoria Mboko’s meteoric rise hit full throttle in Montreal. The Canadian teen, who soared from No. 333 to No. 85 in the world this season, delivered a ruthless performance, saving all four breakpoints she faced while Coco Gauff crumbled under pressure, racking up 22 unforced errors. It wasn’t just a victory, it was a statement. With that fearless display, Mboko became the last Canadian standing across both the Montreal and Toronto singles draws.
She didn’t just beat the World No. 2, she shattered records and ignited a new wave of Canadian tennis fire. Mboko carved her name into the sport’s history books as the second player younger than Gauff to defeat her, following Diana Shnaider in Toronto 2024. She also became only the second teenager to topple Gauff on the WTA level, after Iga Swiatek did it in Rome back in 2021.
Adding to the list, she became the first Canadian, at any level, to conquer Gauff and the youngest Canadian ever to defeat a No.1 seed at the National Bank Open. On one unforgettable night, Mboko turned Centre Court into a launchpad for greatness.
But her historic run didn’t end there. Mboko is now just the second wild card in the Open Era to defeat the top seed at the Canadian Open, joining Stephanie Dubois, who stunned Kim Clijsters in 2006. She also etched her place as the fifth-youngest to ever defeat a No.1 seed at a WTA 1000 event since the format’s 2009 inception.
As for Coco Gauff, the road now turns homeward, to Cincinnati. After her dazzling triumph at Roland Garros, the American is set to play her first match on home soil since that title run.
Can she shake off the Montreal sting and light up Cincinnati? The next chapter begins now.
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