Before Victoria Mboko was the powerful wildcard who dispatched three Grand Slam champions at the Canadian Open this week, she was a four-year-old on a tennis court in Burlington, Ont., demanding to be fed balls to hit while her siblings trained.
Pierre Lamarche remembers Mboko standing on the baseline of the court as he coached her sister, Gracia, who is 10 years her senior and a talented tennis player in her own right who competed at the national level.
“That’s how it all started,” Lamarche, who eventually coached Mboko, too, told CBC’s Heather Hiscox Thursday morning.
The day before, Mboko, now 18, had eked out a win in the Canadian Open semifinal against 2022 Wimbledon champion Elena Rybakina, 26. After losing the first set, Mboko mounted a nail-biting comeback.
“I knew that last night was gonna be a very tough match,” said Lamarche, noting Mboko lost to Rybakina 6-3, 7-5 two weeks ago in the quarterfinals of the Washington Open.
The budding Canadian tennis star fought off multiple match points to come back and beat No. 9 seed Elena Rybakina in a third-set tiebreaker.
‘Attitude of no fear’
Lamarche worried Rybakina’s style of play would be trickier for his former student to face, but he says Mboko’s performance “and really, her attitude of no fear, just showed up again. And she just hates losing so much that she competes at a level that I’ve never seen an athlete compete [at].”
Mboko’s former coach says her comeback against Rybakina in some ways echoed her very foundations in the sport.
She learned to play with her sister, and Lamarche recalls that Mboko hated losing to her so much that when it happened, “she would kind of sulk,” despite being so much younger.
“Eventually, she conquered her sister,” he said.
Lamarche started coaching Mboko and her three siblings 15 years ago, after encouraging their mother to move them from Toronto to Burlington where he was based.
Mboko’s parents, Cyprien Mboko and Godee Kitadi, had moved the family from North Carolina, where Mboko was born. They recently told the Women’s Tennis Association that they had emigrated to the U.S. from the Democratic Republic of the Congo in 1999 due to political turmoil.
“They’re a great family, very supportive, the type of family that you would do anything for,” Lamarche said. “And they did a lot for us.”
The coach says that power, both physical and mental, has been a hallmark of Mboko’s stunning rise in Montreal this week. Including in her victories over Rybakina, Sofia Kenin and 2025 French Open winner Coco Gauff.
As rising Canadian tennis star Victoria Mboko prepares for her final against Naomi Osaka at the National Bank Open in Montreal, her childhood coach, Pierre Lamarche, recalls her drive, focus and how much the up-and-coming star hated to lose
Lamarche says it’s also what will serve her tonight as she faces four-time Grand Slam champion Naomi Osaka.
“Power on her serve, power on her forehand and power in her mental tenacity … Vicky is going to have to play her game and play with the same abandon that she has shown up to date,” he said.
Overcoming setbacks
The road to this year’s Canadian Open hasn’t always been smooth for the young player, says Sarah Kadi.
The registered coach with the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) and Tennis Canada accompanied an eight-year-old Mboko to a tournament in Florida 10 years ago.
At the time, Kadi says Mboko was already exhibiting the qualities that have helped her win over and over again — she has 33 wins under her belt so far this year.
“She was just confident and wanted to win at anything,” she told CBC News Network. “You could see the belief she had in herself.”
Though that belief has stayed strong, Kadi says Mboko has faced setbacks in recent years, including a number of knee injuries, as well as having to spend nearly half a year away from her family because of COVID-19 restrictions while on the road for competitions.
“Her poise on court has been exceptional, facing these big-time players,” Kadi said. “She steps on court with no doubt. You know she believes she can win and she’s showing it.”
