In May, Naomi Osaka’s triumph at the L’Open 35 de Saint-Malo in France marked her first title since welcoming daughter Shai, a shining milestone after an 18-month maternity leave from September 2022 to January 2024. “That’s one of my favorite things about life though, there’s always room to grow and evolve,” she reflected, her words resonating with renewal. Riding that wave, she stormed into the Canadian Open final recently after a dull European Swing, only to fall to hometown favorite Victoria Mboko in Montreal. Now, Coco Gauff’s ex-coach Brad Gilbert has broken his silence, weighing in on the blunder that may have cost Osaka her shot at glory.

It was a bruising day for Naomi Osaka, but a landmark one for Canada’s rising star, Victoria Mboko. In front of a roaring home crowd, the 18-year-old staged a stunning comeback, defeating the four-time Grand Slam champion 2-6, 6-4, 6-1 in the Canadian Open final on Thursday. The victory handed Mboko the first WTA title of her young career and lit up Montreal with national pride. For Osaka, a win would have ended a 1,629-day drought since her last WTA crown at the 2021 AO. Instead, she must wait again for another chance to climb back to the mountaintop.

As the final settled into history, Coco Gauff’s former coach, Brad Gilbert, weighed in with his analysis on X. “Tremendous fighting and defense from Vicky Mboko, Double Osaka made ton of errors the last set and half, awesome 👏 to see the crowd in Montreal absolutely 💯 rocking,” he wrote. His words captured both the grit of Mboko’s performance and the atmosphere that charged the night.

The match began with signs of vulnerability from the Canadian teenager. In her opening service game, Mboko double-faulted twice and was broken, still nursing a heavily taped wrist from a fall in her semifinal against Rybakina. Osaka, sharp and composed, breezed through the opener without facing a break point, capitalizing on 22 unforced errors from her opponent. For a moment, it looked as though experience would smother youth.

But if the past week had revealed anything, it was Mboko’s unshakable resilience. She had already come from behind in the third round against Marie Bouzkova and in the semifinals against Rybakina. Once again, she dug in. In the second set, she broke Osaka four times, surging to a 5-2 lead. Osaka clawed back to 5-4, but Mboko steadied herself, shrugging off her 12th double fault to close the set when another Osaka forehand sailed long.

The turning point came early in the final set. Mboko secured a break in the third game, but it was the fourth that broke the match wide open. Down love-30, she battled through six deuces, saved four break points, and delivered a cold-blooded drop shot winner that sent the Montreal crowd into raptures. At 4-1, the momentum was entirely hers.

She followed up with a service hold capped by an ace and another Osaka error into the net. Then, with the finish line in sight, she broke Osaka for the eighth time. When Osaka’s backhand found the net, Mboko collapsed to her knees, tears in her eyes, as the capacity crowd rose in a sustained ovation worthy of a breakthrough moment.

For Mboko, the win was not just about a trophy, but about etching her name into the memory of her home city. Lifting the silverware before her people, she shared her joy openly, basking in the dream she had turned into reality. For Osaka, it was a reminder that the road back to the summit is steep, but for Mboko, it was the night she claimed it for the first time.

Victoria Mboko shares joyful reflections on Canadian Open triumph

Victoria Mboko’s Canadian Open run was nothing short of a teenage tempest tearing through the WTA. In a matter of a couple of weeks, the Canadian phenom ousted no less than four Grand Slam champions in Sofia Kenin, Coco Gauff, Elena Rybakina, and Naomi Osaka. What’s more remarkable is that Gauff and Rybakina had entered the tournament as the No. 1 and No. 3 seeds, respectively. A parallel to this would be the runs of Ons Jabeur and Elina Svitolina in Wimbledon 2023. But then again, neither of them was in her teens. That makes Mboko the second-youngest player in the Open Era to achieve the feat, behind only Serena Williams at the 1999 US Open.

She now stands shoulder-to-shoulder with a rather slim list of Canadian champions in the Open Era, alongside Faye Urban (1969) and Bianca Andreescu (2019). In a further twist to her fairytale run, she also became just the third wild card to capture a WTA 1000 title since the format’s introduction in 2009, following Maria Sharapova (Cincinnati 2011) and Andreescu (Indian Wells 2019).

The final itself was a brawl of nerves and steel, a match that saw 13 service breaks across 25 games. Mboko’s most lethal weapon? A ruthless conversion rate, eight of nine break points executed with the precision of a seasoned warrior. And here’s the kicker: in a field of 32 seeds, not one reached the final. It marked only the third time in the Open Era, and the sixth in WTA 1000 history, that two players outside the Top 40 clashed for the title.

Her victory was not without peril. Both finalists had stared defeat in the eye earlier in the week: Osaka saved match points against Liudmila Samsonova, and Mboko did the same against Rybakina. It was survival, then ascension.

Her emotions spilled after the win. “When I was younger, these kind of achievements seemed so far away. I would have never known it would come so close. To do something like this and to tell my younger self just to keep training, keep believing in yourself. Oh my God, I’m getting so emotional right now,” she confessed, her voice carrying the weight of every practice session, every lonely court.

And now, with the Cincinnati Open on the horizon and the US Open looming like a grand stage, the question stands sharp: can this teenage Canadian transform her WTA 1000 thunder into Grand Slam lightning? The story is still being written, and the pen is in her hands.