Victoria Mboko still remembers her last trip to New York.
In 2022, she was here as a junior, confined to the training center with only brief looks at the bigger courts. Two years on, she has been practicing on Louis Armstrong Stadium, preparing for her first main-draw match.
“It feels really cool,” she said. “This is one of my favorite Grand Slams, and I’m just really excited to play these weeks.”
The step onto Armstrong comes on the heels of something larger. Earlier this month in Montreal, Mboko entered as an 18-year-old wild card ranked No. 85 and finished the week with a WTA 1000 trophy — and four Grand Slam champions in her wake.
She became the second youngest player in the Open Era to defeat four major winners in one event, a distinction previously held only by Serena Williams in 1999.
Mboko’s ranking rose 61 spots to No. 24. She joined Bianca Andreescu and Maria Sharapova as one of only three wild cards to win a WTA 1000 since the format began in 2009.
Now that surge meets a new challenge in New York, where her first-round opponent is Barbora Krejcikova, a two-time Grand Slam singles champion.
But what defined the week wasn’t only in the numbers. It was the way she held together matches that could have slipped away. She dropped the opening set three times. Against Rybakina, she needed a third-set tiebreak.
In the final, Osaka raced through the first set before Mboko wrestled control of the match, breaking serve eight times across the last two sets.
The turning point came early in the third set, a six-deuce service game at 3–1. Mboko saved four break points, finally ending the sequence with a drop shot that froze Osaka.
“Playing at home in front of your crowd can be nerve-racking,” she said. “But I wanted to use their energy in a positive way.”
Montreal also brought attention she had never experienced: national talk shows, TV appearances, a rush of interviews.
“Everything happened super quickly,” she said. “Looking back at it, it was really cool to experience. But there are so many more things to come.”
In New York, the comparisons are obvious. Andreescu in 2019, Emma Raducanu in 2021 — teenagers who arrived with little expectation and left with the trophy. Mboko sees them as reminders of what is possible.
“Of course Montreal gave me confidence,” she said, “but it’s in the past.”
She’s right. Montreal altered her standing. New York will show what she can do with it.