–
MONTREAL – A smattering of facts and firsts ahead of this blockbuster showdown in Montreal Thursday night between Naomi Osaka and Victoria Mboko.
(Most of this comes courtesy of the WTA Tour’s match notes).
*Mboko is the seventh player aged 18 or younger to ever reach a WTA 1000 final. The kids are 4-2: Belinda Bencic (2015, Toronto), Bianca Andreescu (2019, Indian Wells) and Mirra Andreeva (Dubai and Indian Wells, 2025) all won. Caroline Wozniacki (2009, Madrid) and Jelena Ostapenko (2016, Doha), were both runners up.
•Mboko is the fifth WTA 1000 finalist ranked No. 85 or higher to make a final, after Jelena Ostapenko (Doha 2016), Svetlana Kuznetsova (Cincinnati 2019), Caroline Dolehide (Guadalajara 2023) and Amanda Anisimova (Toronto 2024). She would be the first to take the title, if she can make it.
*Mboko is the fourth player this season to defeat three former Grand Slam champs in the same tournament (Keys at the AO, Andreeva at Dubai and Indian Wells and Alexandra Eala in Miami).
–
*If she wins, only Serena Williams, at the 1999 US Open, would have been younger in beating FOUR former major champions in the same event.
•Mboko is the first wild card to reach a WTA final since Jil Teichmann in Cincinnati in 2021. If she wins, she’d be only the third wild card to do so since the 1000s began in 2009, after Maria Sharapova in Cincinnati in 2011 and Andreescu at Indian Wells in 2019.
•Twice before, a pair of unseeded players squared off in the final in Canada in the Open Era: Regina Marsikova beat Marise Kruger in 1977, and Laura Du Pont beat Brigette Cuypers in 1979. For those of you not born, both editions were sponsored by cigarettes – Rothmans in 1977, and Player’s in 1979. We’ve come a long way, baby. (The 1979 men’s final featured … Borg beating McEnroe).
–
•It will be the sixth time two unseeded players will face each other in a WTA 1000 final (first was Garcia vs. Barty in Wuhan in 2017; most recent was Anisimova v Ostapenko in Doha this year).
•It will be the first time two players outside the top 40 in the rankings meet in a WTA 1000 final. Ever. Of course, that number will be drastically different for both in the next rankings update. If Mboko wins, only Kim Clijsters (ranked No. 133 at Indian Wells in 2005) would have ben ranked lower as a WTA 1000 champion.
*Mboko doesn’t have a lot of stats accumulated at the WTA Tour level. But on that smaller-than-average sample size she’s No. 10 in percentage of return games won (41.8%). She’s No. 19 in percentage of first-serve return points won (38.4%). She’s No. 20 with a first-serve percentage of 64.5%. And she’s No. 15 in percentage of break points converted (49.4%), and No. 20 in percentage of return points won (45.4%). When we say she’s playing top-20 tennis, we’re not just blowing smoke.
*In contrast, Osaka is ranked No. 61, No. 49, No. 79, No. 48 and No. 59 in those respective categories. But Osaka sits at No. 4 on the WTA Tour in aces, No. 1 in first-serve points won and overall service points won, and No. 2 in service games won.
*Mboko’s live ranking is at No. 34. If she wins, she would move up to No. 25. Osaka’s live ranking sits at No. 24; if she wins, she would move up to No. 21 – just 40 points out of the top 20. That both would come into the tournament well out of reach, and come out of it with a good chance to be seeded at the US Open (in Osaka’s case, assuredly) is a good 12 days’ work.
•A year ago, Osaka was ranked No. 90 and didn’t even get a wild card into the Cincinnati main draw. She had to play the qualifying, and lost to Ashlyn Krueger in three sets in the final round.
About Post Author
Great info! Thanks, Steph.