Victoria Mboko, 18, aims for her first major title at the Montreal Masters 1000 tennis tournament

Just a few days ago, Victoria Mboko had never made it past the third round of a major tournament on the WTA women's professional tennis circuit. On Thursday, August 7 (Friday night in mainland France), the 18-year-old Canadian will play her first Masters 1000 final in Montreal – the highest category after the Grand Slams – against Naomi Osaka, former world number 1 and two-time winner of the Australian Open (2019, 2021) and the US Open (2018, 2020).

The bar is high, but, in front of her home crowd, Victoria Mboko, ^85th in the world, has already defied all odds, having only been invited to appear on court. In the semi-finals, she defeated Kazakh Elena Rybakina, ^12th in the world and winner of Wimbledon in 2022, in three sets (1-6, 7-5, 7-6), despite fatigue and a sore wrist in the final set. "Without the crowd, I probably wouldn't have managed to get through it," she admitted after qualifying, while her rival served for the match twice.

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