Mboko Shines in NBO Montreal Debut

That’s no disservice to Kimberly Birrell but instead, an indication of Mboko’s quality and meteoric rise in 2025.

After appearing in her first Grand Slam main draw, winning matches at majors and cracking the benchmark Top 100 in the last few months, Mboko beat Birrell 7-5, 6-3 to notch her first victory at the National Bank Open presented by Rogers in Montreal.

It was an impressive debut indeed for Mboko, raised in Toronto but who has regularly trained in Montreal and so knows Stade IGA and its surroundings well. The familiarity didn`t lessen early nerves that appeared, no surprise since Mboko regularly watched the marquee WTA 1000 tournament while growing up.

"I was a little bit nervous today because it was my first time playing in the main draw in front of Canadian fans," said Mboko, who spoke both English and French in her post match briefing with reporters. "So, it was a little bit nervous walking on court, but I know a lot of them are really there just to support me, whether I won or lost the point. I was really grateful for that. I think it really helped me as well to get through the match."

Birrell entered the NBO on a tough stretch, winning just two of her previous nine top tier main draw matches. Yet her dip in form coincided with a change in surfaces. She prefers hard courts, thriving on the surface earlier in 2025 to help boost her ranking to its current no. 76 -- 12 spots higher than Mboko.

Birrell rallied to overturn a 2-0 deficit but buckled at 5-6 in the first set, hitting a double fault at 15-30 and misfiring on a backhand to end the opener.

Coco Gauff praised Mboko’s stellar movement after they faced off in Rome in May -- noteworthy since Gauff`s court coverage is off the charts -- and her ball striking isn`t bad, either. Mboko`s ability to hit both the forehand and backhand down the line keeps opponents off balance, with the latter helping Mboko break for 3-1 in the second set.

Given that Birrell led 40-15 and dropped serve on a fourth break point, it was bound to sting the Australian. Mboko surged.

Mboko thumped 15 aces and produced a hefty serve, though not an ace, to officially advance and set up a meeting with resurgent Grand Slam winner Sofia Kenin.

"I kind of surprised myself a little bit in the match where I was serving really well," said Mboko. "I just wanted to have a really good first serve percentage, honestly, in the whole match, but I didn't know that I was going to serve like that, but it gave me a lot of advantages and a lot of free points. So I think that also was a big factor in the match to help me gain those points where I really needed them."

Parents Cyprien and Godee will no doubt be back watching when Mboko plays Kenin on Tuesday.

"I'm just going to go in the match with the same mindset that I do all the time where I need to be focused from the first point," said Mboko. "I'm not expecting anything easy, so I'm just going to be very prepared for that."

The player that beat Mboko in the semi-finals of the US Open juniors in 2022, Alexandra Eala, played on Centre Court earlier on Monday in her own tournament debut. But unlike Mboko, Eala couldn’t get the win against Marketa Vondrousova. Since Vondrousova is a Grand Slam winner, Eala’s task was always going to be difficult. However, the 20-year-old trailblazer from the Philippines had won four of her previous six outings against Grand Slam singles winners. She looked on course for another scalp to add to her heroics in Miami in March before the talented Czech prevailed 3-6, 6-1, 6-2. Vondrousova -- hampered by injuries -- only dropped eight points behind her first serve in the last two sets in a rare all-lefty encounter. Vondrousova might best be known for winning Wimbledon in 2023, but she won the silver medal at the 2021 Olympics in Tokyo on hard courts.

In keeping with the theme of younger players taking centre stage, Marina Stakusic of Mississauga, Ont., began play on centre court but Eala’s fellow 20-year-old lost to Romania’s Jaqueline Cristian 2-6, 6-2, 6-2. Cristian, ranked at a career-high no. 49, capitalized in the final two sets as the wildcard`s first serve percentage dropped. 

Photo by: Pascal Ratthé