This Week in Tennis: Mboko Continues Meteoric…

Welcome to This Week in Tennis, where we catch up on all the latest and biggest stories from the ATP and WTA Tours.

Mboko Wins Second Career Title

Canadian teenager Victoria Mboko continued her incredible rookie season on tour as she defeated Cristina Bucsa 7-5, 6-7(9), 6-2 to win the Hong Kong Open early Sunday morning. It was the second WTA title of her young career after she captured the National Bank Open in Montreal in August.

Mboko jumped all the way to No. 18 in the WTA rankings after beginning the season at No. 333.

“It feels really nice to finish the season with a win. When you win a tournament, there's a little bit of pressure that you need to do more and you need to do it again, but you know, I try to stay calm and not put too many expectations on myself," Mboko said. "There are so many talented players, you never know what’s going to happen.”

The 19-year-old defeated fellow Canadian Leylah Annie Fernandez en route to the final.

Mboko finishes her season with a 60-14 overall record (20-10 in WTA main draws), including a run of 20 consecutive victories to begin the season.

Sinner Retakes World No. 1

Jannik Sinner will head into the ATP Finals with plenty of momentum after beating Félix Auger-Aliassime 6-4, 7-6(4) to win the Paris Masters.

It’s the fifth 1000-level title of Sinner’s career and 23rd overall. The win also helped the 24-year-old retake the world No. 1 ranking from Carlos Alcaraz.

The Italian now trails Alcaraz by 1,050 points in the ATP Live Race for the Year-End No. 1 heading into the ATP Finals in Turin, where Sinner is the defending champion.

Sinner also became the first player to win a 1000-level title without dropping a set since Carlos Alcaraz at Indian Wells in 2023.

Auger-Aliassime put himself in a position to reach the ATP Finals with his performance in Paris. The Canadian now sits in eighth place in the Live Race with a 160-point lead over Lorenzo Musetti.

The Montreal-native officially withdrew from the 250 event in Metz, but will still qualify for the ATP Finals if Musetti does not win this week’s tournament in Athens.

All winners from the past week:

ATP 1000 - Paris

Men’s Singles: Jannik Sinner* (5/23) d. Félix Auger-Aliassime
Men’s Doubles: Harri Heliovaara and Henry Patten d. Julian Cash and Lloyd Glasspool

WTA 500 - Hong Kong

Women’s Singles: Victoria Mboko* (2/2) d. Cristina Bucsa
Women’s Doubles: Xinyu Jiang and Yafan Wang d. Momoko Kobori and Peangtarn Plipuech

WTA 250 - Jiujiang

Women’s Singles: Anna Blinkova* (1/ 2) d. Lilli Tagger
Women’s Doubles: Quinn Gleason and Elena Pridanakina d. Ekaterina Ovcharenko and Emily Webley-Smith

WTA 250 - Chennai