Who is Victoria Mboko? 18-year-old Canadian sensation making Miami Open waves with 28-1 record this season

One of the leading stories on Wednesday at the 2025 Miami Open was the 18-year-old sensation Victoria Mboko who made serious waves by beating Camila Osorio. She won through 7-5, 5-7, 6-3 to book a second round tie tomorrow with top 10 star Paula Badosa.

But the Canadian who already has risen 10 spots by winning one game towards the top 150 in the WTA Ranking has form for this during 2025. She has been a juggernaut on the ITF circuit.

The account of the tour were quick to point this out on their social media. WTA said remember the name and ITF promptly pointed out they already know the name. She has won W35 titles in Le Lamentin, Petit-Bourg and Manchester as well as W75 titles in Rome and Porto.

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She has only had one defeat during 2025 hence why she was invited to play in Miami as a new star on the block and against the Colombian she took what she had learned on the smaller tour into a superb win. Also she had to learn to battle the crowd who were very much on Osorio's side.

“I felt like in the match, a lot of the crowd was against me,” the 18-year-old said of the fans. “I’m kind of proud that I blocked all that noise out and kind of focused on myself more.”

“There were a lot of Canadians, too. I was kind of letting them in my head more.”

But it is a run that Mboko wasn't even expecting herself when she started the season off. “If I had told myself, ‘You’re going to win three tournaments in a row,’ I’d be like, ‘What are you talking about?’”

The 18-year-old isn't a Mirra Andreeva type story but has went almost the Emma Navarro route in her findings. She made her WTA Tour Main Draw debut at the 2022 Canadian Open in the doubles but a first appearance as a wildcard as barely a teenager in Granby. Mboko reached the final of two Grand Slam junior tournaments in 2022.

So she has done the hard yards also on the junior tour. She reached the summit at both the Australian Open and Wimbledon but it was the ITF tour three years on where she thrived as she became an adult winning 22 successive matches without dropping a set no mind the 28 game unbeaten run she now has.

Navarro is perhaps a great case study as she herself grinded on ITF tournaments and WTA 125k tournaments and found her way high in the rankings after pouncing on these chances. In a world where top names don't want to go down a level, Mboko is perhaps the reason as she has swept aside competition consistently.

These aren't mugs either with Mboko seeing off Clervie Ngounoue twice and also Harriet Dart more recently. It is also a time where Canada needs a rising hope again.

Bianca Andreescu has been stop start on the tour since she won the US Open, Eugenie Bouchard plays pickleball now instead and Leylah Fernandez outside of doubles is perhaps their greatest hope albeit she goes in and out. Time will tell when it comes to Mboko's future but she has proven in Miami that she certainly has one to look out for whatever happens.

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