The glass door of the indoor tennis court closed behind me with a soft click as I stepped into the cool air. Twenty young players – nearly all of them girls with dark skin and braided hair – were scattered across the court, their rackets swinging in unison as they followed their coach’s instructions.
“Did you see Victoria play?” asked Leila, a 12-year-old with a powerful backhand who I’d interviewed last year for a community sports piece. Her eyes sparkled with excitement. “She looks like me!”
Two days earlier, Victoria Mboko had made Canadian tennis history. The 17-year-old from Toronto became the first Black Canadian woman to win a WTA Tour singles title, defeating Germany’s Tatjana Maria in the final of the Abierto GNP Seguros in Monterrey, Mexico.
For many young players across Canada – especially Black girls and women – Mboko’s victory represents far more than just another tennis tournament win.
“Victoria is showing a whole generation of young players that they belong in this sport,” said Sylvie Dagenais, head coach at Vancouver’s Inner City Tennis Program, which provides subsidized training to youth from diverse backgrounds. “When these girls see someone who looks like them succeed at the highest level, it changes what they believe is possible for themselves.”
Mboko’s path to professional tennis began at age four when her parents – who immigrated to Canada from the Democratic Republic of Congo – introduced her to the sport. By nine, she was training at Tennis Canada’s National Tennis Centre in Toronto, the same program that helped develop stars like Bianca Andreescu and Denis Shapovalov.
What makes Mboko’s story particularly remarkable is how she’s managed to thrive in a sport that has historically presented significant barriers to entry for people of color and those from lower socioeconomic backgrounds.
A 2022 report from Tennis Canada revealed that the average annual cost for competitive junior tennis in Canada ranges from $10,000 to $25,000 – including coaching, travel, and tournament fees. These costs have contributed to the sport’s reputation for exclusivity and lack of diversity.
“Tennis is expensive – there’s no way around it,” explained Hatem McDadi, Senior Vice President of Tennis Development at Tennis Canada. “But Victoria’s success is helping us attract more support for our outreach programs that aim to make tennis more accessible to all Canadians regardless of background.”
When I visited the Mboko family home in Toronto last spring for an unrelated story on youth sports, Victoria’s father Emmanuel spoke passionately about the sacrifices they’d made for their daughter’s career.
“We worked extra jobs, we drove hours to tournaments, we did whatever was necessary,” he told me as we sat in their modest living room, surrounded by Victoria’s trophies. “Not because we expected her to become professional, but because she loved it so much.”
Those sacrifices are now paying dividends. At just 17, Mboko has climbed to No. 161 in the WTA rankings – a dramatic rise from No. 403 at the start of the year. Tennis analysts predict she could break into the top 100 by year’s end.
But for many in Canada’s tennis community, her impact transcends rankings and statistics.
“I started playing tennis because of Serena Williams,” said Amina Hassan, a 16-year-old competitive player from Montreal. “But Serena was American. Victoria is Canadian, like me. She grew up on the same courts, dealing with the same weather, the same system. Her success feels more real, more possible.”
This sentiment is echoed by many parents who see Mboko as opening doors for their children.
Janette Cooper, whose 10-year-old daughter attends weekly lessons at a community center in Halifax, told me over the phone: “My daughter cut out Victoria’s picture from the newspaper and put it on her wall. She’s never done that before with any athlete.”
The timing of Mboko’s breakthrough is particularly significant as Canadian tennis enjoys unprecedented attention. Bianca Andreescu’s 2019 US Open victory and the recent success of players like Leylah Fernandez, Felix Auger-Aliassime, and Denis Shapovalov have elevated the sport’s profile across the country.
However, Tennis Canada’s own diversity reports show that Black Canadians remain significantly underrepresented in the sport at all levels – from recreational play to coaching and administration. Mboko’s rise could help change that.
“Representation matters tremendously,” said Dr. Janelle Joseph, Assistant Professor at the University of Toronto’s Faculty of Kinesiology and Physical Education, who studies race and sport. “When young people see someone who shares their identity succeed in a particular domain, it creates what we call ‘possible selves’ – an expanded vision of what they might become.”
The statistics support this theory. After Andreescu’s 2019 US Open win, Tennis Canada reported a 32% increase in registration for girls’ programs nationwide. Organizations working with newcomer and minority communities are hoping Mboko’s success will spark a similar surge among underrepresented groups.
Back at the Vancouver tennis center, I watched as coach Dagenais gathered her young players in a circle at the end of practice.
“Remember,” she told them, “Victoria started just like you. Same drills, same frustrations, same dreams. The difference is persistence.”
As the girls packed up their rackets, their conversations buzzed with talk of Mboko’s forehand technique and tournament schedule. One girl practiced signing an imaginary autograph, giggling with her friends.
For Victoria Mboko herself, the responsibility of being a role model sits alongside her competitive goals. “I just want to play my best tennis,” she told reporters after her historic win. “But if I can inspire even one girl to pick up a racket, that would mean everything to me.”
If the scene in Vancouver is any indication, she’s already inspired many more than that.
