Victoria Mboko, the 18-year-old Canadian tennis player, defeated champion Coco Gauff at the Canadian Open in Montreal on Saturday. The win secures her spot in the quarter-finals, during which she will play against Jessica Bouzas Maneiro, according to the BBC.
Mboko, who is ranked 53rd, defeated Gauff 6-1, 6-4 in the span of 1 hour and 2 minutes. The 18-year-old, who entered the tournament ranked 85th, now climbed up to 53rd.
“Your support was incredible,” Mboko told the crowd after her victory, according to the Associated Press. “I’m really happy to win today. .. It’s incredible. I’m so happy to beat such a great champion.”
“When I was up 5-4, the crowd started cheering even louder, and everything got super noisy,” she added. “I used that as more fuel for myself and to pump myself up a little bit more. I just used the crowd to my advantage as much as I could.”
Gauff congratulated Mboko on her victory
The tennis champion recognized her opponent’s skill after the match.
“She’s playing high-level tennis,” Gauff said. “I think that’s what showed today. I think she was the better player.”
Gauff and Mboko previously played against each other in May. In Rome, Gauff defeated Mboko 3-6, 6-2, 6-1.
“I was actually really thinking about it a lot during the match,” Mboko said about their previous encounter. “I had flashbacks to when I played her in Rome a little bit. I just remember when she came out playing even better and stepped it up a bit better. Wanted to step my game up a little bit more and make sure I matched whatever she was producing, and I wanted to stay right there with her.”
Mboko has been one to watch during previous competitions. This year, she made her Grand Slam debut at the French Open. By late May, she had already racked up 42 victories and had lost only five matches throughout the year, Blavity reported.
