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Victoria Mboko and Ben Shelton became the rare duo of Black tennis players to win championship matches on the same day.
Mboko vaulted into the glitterati of the pro women’s tennis circle by her multiple stunning performances in the Canadian Open tennis tournament, including a come-from-behind 2-6, 6-4, 6-1 triumph over four-time Grand Slam champion Naomi Osaka in the championship final match. The 18-year-old Canadian, ranked 333rd in the world coming into the tournament, beat four Grand Slam champions to capture her first World Tennis Association title. She is now ranked 24th and will compete with Osaka in the US Open.
Naomi Osaka, a 4-time Grand Slam champion, came up short against the hometown favorite, Mboko. PHOTO: SSBCRACK.COM
Earlier this year, Mboko set a Canadian women’s record by winning 22 consecutive matches without losing a set. At that time, Mboko won four International Tennis Federation (ITF) titles in Martinique, Manchester, UK, Guadeloupe, and Rome. After winning a fourth tournament, by the early spring, the new Canadian champ sported a record of 33-3. Before her three-set win against Osaka, the Canadian women’s No. 1 player beat the top seed and world ranked No. 2 Coco Gauff, becoming the youngest player since 2015 to reach the semifinals in this tournament.
“When I won my first-round match, I was super happy and content,” said Mboko. “I would have never thought that I would have made it to the final, let alone win the tournament. I was super happy playing in Montreal for the first time ever. I just remember feeling nervous but really taking in the moment as much as I possibly could.”
Playing before 11,000 wildly cheering spectators, Mboko stayed poised, despite dropping the opening set with so many emotions going through her head. After taking the second set, 6-4, she dominated Osaka, 6-1, in the final set to raise her world rankings to No. 24.
“This was a surreal experience,” said Mboko.
And while she was thrilling the sellout crowd in Montreal, American Ben Shelton was savoring his victory over 11th-seeded Karen Khachanov with a three-set victory in the men’s Canadian Open tennis championship in Toronto. This year’s Wimbledon quarterfinalist reached the final by defeating the top seed, Alexander Zverev. Khachanov rallied from 5-3 to win the first-set tiebreaker.
After that first set, Shelton withstood three break points on his serve to win his service game and tie their contest at one set apiece. He struggled to win only five matches out of his last 20 when losing the first set but prevailed in the tiebreaker for his first ATP Masters 1000 trophy.
Their match, being played at the same time as the women’s Canadian final, had to be halted when the crowd broke out in celebration on the announcement that Mboko had won the title match. Shelton looked confused at the crowd’s reaction and asked, “What is going on?” before walking over to speak to the chair umpire.
American Ben Shelton won his first Masters 1000 trophy in 3 sets. PHOTO: PETER POWER
After his 6-7 (5-7), 6-4, 7-6 (7-3) triumph, Shelton said on his Instagram, “Congrats on the title to Vicky Mboko. I had no idea what was going on at the time, but Toronto went nuts for you.”
Shelton’s victory in the National Bank Open tennis tournament is the third biggest title of his young career. The 22-year-old, seeded fourth in the tournament, became the first American to win a Masters 1000 hard-court event since Andy Roddick in 2003. His previous hard-court victories came in Tokyo in 2023 and on clay in Houston last year. He is also the youngest American to win a Masters 1000 title since Roddick won Miami in 2004 at the age of 21.
“It was a surreal feeling,” said Shelton. “My best tennis came out when it mattered most. I was clutch, I persevered, I was resilient — all qualities I like to see in myself.”
His father and coach, Bryan Shelton, pointed out, “He went for his shots, trusted the work that he’s put in, and he executed. Sometimes you do, and sometimes you don’t. But it’s always nice when you can leave a tournament and hold a trophy up in your hands because it’s rare.”
With his victory north of the border, Ben Shelton will move up a spot to a career-high 6th ranking in the world.
There was plenty of controversy to mull over in Toronto, however, when the two top seeds in the world, Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz, winners of the last seven Grand Slam tournaments, decided to bypass the Canadian Open for the second year in a row. The top two players explained to tournament officials that they needed an extra week off after the Wimbledon Championships, meaning three weeks instead of the two now in place.
Even veteran Novak Djokovic decided to pass on lesser tournaments like this one in favor of resting his legs in preparation for the US Open next month.
Alcaraz explained, “I love playing tennis, but sometimes it’s just too much.”
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