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Perth Now
05-08-2025
- Sport
- Perth Now
Teenage star Mboko continues giant-killing Montreal run
Canadian teenager Victoria Mboko has advanced to her first career WTA Tour semi-final with a 6-4 6-2 win victory over Spain's Jessica Bouzas Maneiro at the National Bank Open. Two days after ousting No.1 seed Coco Gauff in just 62 minutes, there was no letdown for the 18-year-old from Toronto. After taking a back-and-forth - and error-filled - first set, Mboko was broken in a sluggish start to the second set but broke back in the fourth and sixth games to take a 4-2 advantage. Mboko is the first Canadian to reach the WTA 1000 event's semi-finals since Bianca Andreescu's title run in 2019. She's also the youngest woman to reach the semis since Belinda Bencic's 2015 win in Toronto. Mboko will face Elena Rybakina, who led Marta Kostyuk 6-1 2-1 when the Ukrainian was forced to stop playing because of an apparent arm injury. Rybakina, the No.9 seed from Kazakhstan, converted three of her 10 break-point chances in the quarter-final matchup at IGA Stadium. The players shook hands at the 54-minute mark before the 24th-seeded Kostyuk exited the court in tears. After the third game, Kostyu's trainers wrapped her forearm in medical tape. In a breakthrough year, Mboko has surged from outside the top 300 to a career-high No.85. That number is projected to climb to at least No.55, according to WTA live rankings. After two injury-plagued years, Mboko, who had shown promise as a junior, opened the season with a 22-match win streak and captured five titles on the lower-tier ITF Tour. She then qualified for her first grand slam main draw at the French Open, reaching the third round, before stunning 25th-seeded Magdalena Frech in the first round at Wimbledon. And the upsets keep coming. In Montreal, Mboko has rattled off wins over 79th-ranked Australian Kimberly Birrell, No.23 seed Sofia Kenin, 39th-ranked Marie Bouzkova and Gauff, who is ranked No. 2. Her latest victory boosted her record to 25-8 against higher-ranked players and 51-9 in all competitions. In the other quarter-finals on Tuesday, No.6 seed Madison Keys - the highest-seeded player remaining - faces No.16 Clara Tauson, and former No.1-ranked Naomi Osaka meets No.10 seed Elina Svitolina. The tournament final is on Thursday.
NBC Sports
05-08-2025
- Sport
- NBC Sports
Canadian teenager Mboko reaches semifinals in Montreal and will face Rybakina
MONTREAL — Canadian teenager Victoria Mboko advanced to her first career WTA Tour semifinal with a 6-4, 6-2 win victory over Spain's Jessica Bouzas Maneiro on Monday night at the National Bank Open. Two days after ousting No. 1 seed Coco Gauff in just 62 minutes, there was no letdown for the 18-year-old from Toronto. After taking a back-and-forth — and error-filled — first set, Mboko was broken in a sluggish start to the second set but broke back in the fourth and sixth games to take a 4-2 advantage. Mboko is the first Canadian to reach the WTA 1000 event's semifinals since Bianca Andreescu's title run in 2019. She's also the youngest woman to reach the semis since Belinda Bencic's 2015 win in Toronto. Mboko will face Elena Rybakina, who led Marta Kostyuk 6-1, 2-1 when the Ukrainian was forced to stop playing because of an apparent arm injury. Rybakina, the No. 9 seed from Kazakhstan, converted three of her 10 break-point chances in the quarterfinal matchup at IGA Stadium. The players shook hands at the 54-minute mark before the 24th-seeded Kostyuk exited the court in tears. After the third game, Kostyu's trainers wrapped her forearm in medical tape. In a breakthrough year, Mboko has surged from outside the top 300 to a career-high No. 85. That number is projected to climb to at least No. 55, according to WTA live rankings. After two injury-plagued years, Mboko — who had shown promise as a junior — opened the season with a 22-match win streak and captured five titles on the lower-tier ITF Tour. She then qualified for her first Grand Slam main draw at the French Open, reaching the third round, before stunning 25th-seeded Magdalena Frech in the first round at Wimbledon. And the upsets keep coming. In Montreal, Mboko has rattled off wins over 79th-ranked Kimberly Birrell, No. 23 seed Sofia Kenin, 39th-ranked Marie Bouzkova and Gauff, who is ranked No. 2. Her latest victory boosted her record to 25-8 against higher-ranked players and 51-9 in all competitions. In the other quarterfinals Tuesday, No. 6 seed Madison Keys — the highest-seeded player remaining — faces No. 16 Clara Tauson, and former No. 1-ranked Naomi Osaka meets No. 10 seed Elina Svitolina. The tournament final is Thursday.
New York Post
16-07-2025
- New York Post
Tennis pro allegedly killed by father in dispute over career
An Indian tennis player was allegedly shot dead by her father — prompting an outpouring of grief. Radhika Yadav, 25, died in Gurugram, India on Thursday afternoon. Advertisement Her father Deepak Yadav has been arrested. Gurugram Police were notified by a hospital in the city that a woman had died due to bullet injuries, but when they arrived only Radhika's uncle, Kuldeep Yadav, was present. According to reports, Kuldeep is said to have lodged a complaint over the death of his niece at the Gurugram Sector 56 police station. 5 Radhika Yadav was allegedly shot dead by her father. Instagram / @himaanshika Advertisement The incident which unfolded at their residence reportedly came after Deepak objected to a tennis academy being run by his daughter. Deepak is said to have voiced his objections over the work his daughter was doing when the disagreement between the pair turned dark. 5 Deepak Yadav is accused of murdering his daughter. Gurugram Police 5 Friends mourned Radhika Yadav's passing. Instagram / @himaanshika Advertisement 'He (Deepak) had been upset for a while as he was being taunted by locals over his daughter's income,' police officer Vinod Kumar told The Indian Express. 'He was troubled by their remarks – they would keep saying the house is running on her money, and he is too dependent on that. He had asked her (Radhika) several times earlier to stop working at the academy, but she refused. He could not take it anymore.' 5 Radhika Yadav played on the ITF Tour. Instagram / @himaanshika Advertisement NDTV reported Deepak had admitted to committing the crime to police, saying he had fired five bullets at his daughter, four of which struck her. Himaanshika Singh Rajput, a friend of Radhika, took to Instagram to convey her dismay at her passing. 'Radhika was my best friend. Just two days ago, I stood at her cremation, trying to process the unimaginable — that she was no longer here,' she wrote in the caption of her video. 'Radhika didn't deserve this. She didn't deserve to die like this. She was bright, kind, full of dreams and life. And now, she's gone. This should never have happened. And it cannot be forgotten.' 5 A tennis training session featuring Radhika Yadav. Instagram / @himaanshika Radhika's tennis career saw her play 36 singles matches and seven doubles matches on the ITF circuit. Her final professional match took place in March 2024.
CBC
14-03-2025
- Sport
- CBC
Canadian tennis up-and-comer Victoria Mboko off to torrid start in 2025
Social Sharing Victoria Mboko is winning so many trophies, she can hardly get them home. The up-and-coming Canadian tennis star is off to a stellar start this season with a 27-1 record and five tournament wins in singles on the second-tier ITF Tour. With that comes a rise in the rankings, opportunities to play on bigger stages — and some travel headaches. The 18-year-old from Toronto said flying home from the Caribbean with her shiny hardware earlier this year didn't go over well at airport security. "They were pretty big plates," Mboko said Friday from Miami during a Tennis Canada video call. "They're not very nice when they see big trophies or big pieces of metal like that." Mboko's torrid run has included a 22-match — and 43-set — unbeaten streak. Her 20 consecutive main-draw victories also set a new Canadian women's record on the professional circuit. She has skyrocketed up the WTA Tour's world rankings, climbing from No. 350 at the end of 2024 to a career-high No. 188 in singles. "Every match I play I want to win, and I mean for me to win in two sets makes the match a lot easier," Mboko said with a smile. "Looking back on it, to have achieved that, it's kind of surprising for me. I would have never thought that I was going to do something like that." The five-foot-nine Mboko describes herself as a big-serving player who likes to be aggressive and dictate points with her forehand. Tennis Canada announced Thursday that she'll make her Billie Jean King Cup debut when Canada meets Romania and Japan in qualifiers on April 11 and 13 in Tokyo. Mboko, who goes by "Vicky," will also play in her first WTA 1000 main draw — one level beneath the Grand Slams — next week at the Miami Open after receiving a wild-card entry. She's staying grounded amid the whirlwind start to her year. "I like to go day by day," she said. "It's a very big and fast change for me, I'm going to start playing some higher-level tournaments. I'm honestly happy to be a little bit higher in the ranking. "To be able to compete with these players is such a blessing for me, and I'm so excited to see what I can do. Hopefully give some trouble out there." Passion for tennis The youngest of four siblings, Mboko was born in Charlotte, N.C., before her family, which originally immigrated to North America from the Democratic Republic of Congo, moved to Toronto. She remembers first picking up a racket at four years old while watching her brothers and sister practise. "Growing up, all I watched was tennis," she said. "I felt like I've watched tennis more than playing with toys or watching TV. When you grow up in such a tennis environment like that, I only wanted to do the same thing, you know? I didn't want to be left out." As Mboko's passion for the sport grew, her parents enrolled her in an academy in Burlington, Ont., and she quickly began rising through the ranks. In 2022, Mboko won the Saskatoon Challenger at 15 for her first professional title and reached a career-high junior ranking of No. 6. She also made the junior doubles finals at the Australian Open and Wimbledon with Kayla Cross of London, Ont. A serious knee injury that same year, however, slowed her progress. She called it a learning experience. "I was very young to have an injury (like that). I feel like it's not very common, but it really made me learn how to take care of my body," she said. "Spend that extra time warming up, extra time stretching, everything you can do to recover properly." Mboko is back to turning heads in 2025, saying her mentality was to treat the season as a "clean slate." On top of her singles success, Mboko has a 6-1 record and two ITF trophies in doubles. She's excited for the challenges that lie ahead.
