The last time we saw Victoria Mboko on the tennis court, she held up the home championship trophy among a crowd in Montreal.
Mboko’s days are now behind her.
The Canadian turned 19 on Tuesday and was firmly stuck in the sphere of tennis fans after capturing the National Bank Open proposed by Rogers. Mboko started in 2025 in the top 300 and entered the U.S. Open on Sunday to become the No. 22 seed in the women’s draw.
Her first-time seed player reward on the tour? On Monday, 11 a.m. ET/8 a.m. ET at 14,000-seat Louis Armstrong Stadium (the second largest stadium at the facility), in its first round clash with two-time Grand Slam champion Barbora Krejcikova
The Czech player won Wimbledon last year and won the French Open in 2021, falling to No. 61 in the rankings. A back injury left her out of the Australian Open, and she performed continuously in the last two professional matches (the French Open lost in Wimbledon’s third round loss).
But there was a rise last week on the premise that the former world ranked second and won three games in Cincinnati, including the frustration of No. 10 seed Elina Svotilina.
Meanwhile, Mboko withdrew from Cincinnati after a brilliant victory in Montreal. After the semifinals, she suffered an MRI (no structural damage) on the morning of the championship game against four-time Grand Slam champion Naomi Osaka.
Krejcikova hasn’t been outstanding at the U.S. Open recently, winning just three games in the 2021 career-best quarterfinals.
But, for Mboko, she is still a very powerful enemy, and when the Montreal era gets tough, her home advantage doesn’t seem to give her any more advantage.
Here are other big plots on the eve of the last Grand Slam of that year:
Can Canadian men stand up on the big stage?
Felix Auger-Aliassime, Denis Shapovalov and Gabriel Diallo have won five championships this season, but it is not the same story in the Grand Slam.
In the first three Grand Slams, they only had 7 wins in total, without the third round.
After three players won just one win at the Toronto National Bank Open, Osceph-Aliassime reached the quarterfinals of the Cincinnati Open, where he was thrown into the game 6-0, 6-2 by top seed Jannik Sinner. Diallo also lost to the Italian in the third round, leaving behind a tiebreak in the second set, while Shapovalov was once and for all in Ohio.
All three Canadian men are seeded in New York.
The 25th seed of Russian diamonds – Aliassime faces the lucky loser and the world of Great Britain 151. No. 3 seed Alexander Zverev has a potential third round.
In the first round, Shapowav, the 27th seed, stood out with Hungarian veteran Marton Fucsovics and Hungarian veteran Marton Fucsovics. Their Pro Series 2-2. The sinner is the winner’s potential third round opponent.
Diallo is sown in a Grand Slam for the first time, ranking 31st. He will face the world No. 60 in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Diallo made his debut at the U.S. Open after last year’s qualifiers and then entered the third round.
Canada’s Leylah Fernandez has fond memories of the Big Apple, and her career highlights were the ones she reached the 2021 U.S. Open final.
She has been unable to reach these heights since then, and she performed the second best Grand Slam at the 2022 French Open.
Fernandez won the Citi Open in Washington last month, but later she lost her first game in Montreal and Cincinnati, thus gaining some momentum.
The 31st seed Fernandez will face Rebecca Marino in the qualifiers in Vancouver in Sunday’s first-round Grand Slam. Marino ranked 119th in the world since entering the third round of the United States in 2022.
Belarus’ top seed Aryna Sabalenka can face the title of Fernandez-Marino in the third round.
Sabalenka and Sinner only won the U.S. Open title last year on tough fields in Cincinnati.
Poland’s Iga Swiatek and Spain’s Carlos Alcaraz hope that the trend will continue until this year after Monday’s win of Cincin’s title.
Alcaraz was second in New York and took a break after retiring after Sinner retired after falling behind 5-0 in the Cincinnati final.
Alcaraz and Sinner together won the past seven Grand Slam titles, and this year the pair won the match in several haunting finals at the French Open (Alcaraz) and Wimbledon (Sinner win).
Alcaraz had a tricky U.S. Open first round at Arthur Ashe Stadium on Monday night.
Swiatek stood out, Cincinnati won by Jasmine Paolini and appeared in the U.S. Open mixed doubles final with Casper Ruud, trailing Sabalenka in chasing the Grand Slam title of his seventh career.
Swiatek was in the second half of the draw, struggling French Open champion Coco Gauff and Australian Open champion Madison Keys. These two Americans, along with fourth-seeded Jessica Pegula, didn’t find the best rhythm in the summer hard lineup season.
Meanwhile, Sabalenka can face Denmark’s Clara Tauson in the fourth round, while Kazakhstan’s Elena Rybakina can face in the quarterfinals. Both players won Sabalenka this year, and Tauson and Rybakina also made it to the Montreal semifinals.
Like Mboko, Osaka skipped Cincinnati after the Montreal final.
Of course, the Japanese star failed to acknowledge some of Mboko’s criticisms in her brief speech after winning the NBO championship game in Canada. She then didn’t speak to the reporter and then apologized to Mboko on social media the next day.
Osaka, who received 23 seeds in a breakthrough performance in Canada, opened the U.S. Open against Belgium’s Minnen. Osaka, who enjoyed 2023 visits when he became a mother, won the U.S. Open in 2018 and 20.
Osaka has poor body language and has changed with the dynamics of the NBO finals. We will see her response here.
Just as Alcaraz and Sinner took over men’s tennis, Novak Djokovic received some back seats at the age of 38.
But remember that Djokovic did beat Alcaraz to win Olympic gold medal in Paris last year and was the last player to win a Grand Slam besides Alcaraz and Sinner – at the 2023 U.S. Open.
The 24-time Grand Slam champion ranked first in a game with the New York Yankees this week and ranked seventh this year.
He turned on Tien, a teenage American learner who opposed left-handed, under the lights of the Arthur Ashe Stadium on Sunday night.
Tien defeated Daniil Medvedev in the fourth round of the Australian Open and beat 16 rounds in the NBO, where he knocked out Shapovalov.
If the American crowd has early success with Djokovic, hopefully the American crowd really lags behind their men.
At 45, Venus Williams has not closed books on competitive tennis. The American star won a game at the Citi Open and then lost in the first round of Cincinnati.
The U.S. Open gave Williams a wildcard, who drew the No. 11 seed Karolina Muchova in her first round Monday night.
Muchova has reached the semi-finals in New York over the past two years. She defeated Williams in the first round of the 2020 U.S. Open.
