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Canadian Victoria Mboko, still just 18, was a surprise arrival at the All-England Club on Tuesday, after she got a last-minute slot in the main draw as a lucky loser.
She upset the No. 25 seed Magdalena Frech in the first round, and will play Hailey Baptiste in the second round on Thursday.
But it wasn’t her first-ever trip to the big house.
Three years ago, when Mboko was just 15 – feels like a lifetime ago, but also just a heartbeat ago – she made her Wimbledon debut.
Mboko had made her grass-court debut at Roehampton the previous week, defeating an even younger Hannah Klugman (just 13 then, she’s now 16 and also made her Wimbledon main draw debut this year, against Mboko’s fellow Canadian Leylah Fernandez) in the first round. And then she defeated Renata Jamrichova, also 15 then, who two years later won junior Wimbledon. Mboko lost in the third round to Ranah Stoiber of Great Britain.
At the All-England Club, she won four consecutive three-setters despite a left knee in various stages of taping to reach the semifinals. And in the end, she lost to American Liv Hovde, who ended up winning the tournament that year.
It wasn’t a surprise; Hovde owned Mboko in the uniors, beating her three times in the space of nine months – all in straight sets – on hard court, clay and grass.
(Hovde, who got up to No. 245 in the WTA rankings last October, just completed her freshman year at Duke. She didn’t play pro events from November until she got back out there last month, after the school year).
Here’s Mboko in her second-round win over Brit Ella McDonald.
The doubles with countrywoman Kayla Cross (who also made her Wimbledon debut in the qualifying this year), went even better.
The pair won the Roehampton tuneup – and then they went all the way to the final at Wimbledon. They were beaten in a tight one – 3-6, 6-4, 11-9 in the match tiebreak by Rose Marie Nijikamp of the Netherlands and Angella Okutoyi of Kenya.
There were some disappointed faces.
Throwback interview
And here’s a fun throwback. I’d forgotten I’d posted up an audio interview of Mboko and Cross after that defeat (Yes, we’d love to video these things. Sadly, not allowed).
Here’s what they sounded like.
It’s interesting, in retrospect, to hear Mboko talk about her first days on grass – how much she was wondering “how the hell” she was going to play on it, and the toll it took on her body. Because not much has changed.
Eddie Herr special throwback – vs. Diana Shnaider
Another one from the archives – some video of Mboko in the third round of the Eddie Herr tournament in Bradenton, Fla. at the end of the previous year (2021), playing someone you might know: Diana Shnaider.
Shnaider was quite the drama queen in that one.
The Russian, who is nearly 2 1/2 years older than Mboko, won 6-1, 3-6, 7-5. She ended up losing the semifinal in a third-set tiebreak to Linda Fruhvirtova.
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Admirable effort. However, Mboko knee problem needs to be addressed sooner or later, as she seems to be affected by something similar to Branstine’s condition, which required 4 (four) surgeries.
Right. “Dr. Jerry”. Thanks, as usual for your valuable medical input.
(By that I mean, you literally have no clue what you’re talking about. As usual)