Fairytale continues as Mboko qualifies for Roland Garros main draw
Canada’s Victoria Mboko continued her fairytale season by securing her place in the women’s singles main draw at Roland Garros after navigating the final round of qualifying in the French capital.
Mboko will now make her Grand Slam main draw after defeating Slovenia’s Kaja Juvan 7-5 6-3 in the final round of qualifying, having dispatched Kathinka von Deichmann of Liechtenstein and Austria’s Sinja Kraus in earlier rounds.
The 18-year-old must now wait and see who she will face in the main draw although, whoever it is, her reaching the main draw is another significant achievement in a season which just keeps getting better.
Earlier this month, for instance, Mboko reached her first WTA 125 final in Parma, where she lost to Mayar Sherif of Egypt, while at the Italian Open in Rome the week before she took world No. 2 Coco Gauff to a third set.
In March, the teenager clinched her maiden WTA main draw match-win at the Miami Open after overpowering then world No. 54 Camila Osorio of Colombia. This was also her first win against a Top 100 opponent.
In April, she made her senior Billie Jean King Cup by Gainbridge debut for Canada in this year's Qualifiers during which she posted crucial wins for her nation but could not drag the 2023 champions over the line to the Finals.
This follows her winning five ITF World Tennis Tour titles this season, most recently at W75 Porto in March – the joint-biggest title of her career – after which her win-loss record for the season was 28-1 (including qualifying).
Mboko is a player who has progressed along the ITF player pathway. She is a former junior world No. 6 who reached the Wimbledon girls’ doubles final alongside fellow Canadian Kayla Cross in 2022.
In addition, she twice represented Canada at the ITF World Junior Tennis Finals – the international team event for players aged 14 and under – and once at the Billie Jean King Cup Juniors Finals.
The ITF’s purpose is to enable tennis experiences around the world and provide suitable pathways for players to develop, advance their career and reach the game’s summit – that is exactly what Mboko is doing.