Before Victoria Mboko was the powerful wild card who sent three Grand Slam champions in the Canadian Open this week, she had a four -year -old girl on a tennis court in Burlington, ontarium, demanding that they feed balls to hit while her brothers trained.
Pierre Lamarche remembers Mboko standing on the baseline of the court while training his sister, grace, who is 10 years older than her and a talented tennis player in his own right who competed nationwide.
“This way everything began,” said Lamarche, who finally trained Mboko, told Heather Hiscox from CBC on Thursday morning.
The day before, Mboko, now 18, had won a victory in the semifinal of the Canada Open against the 2022 Wimbledon Champion Elena Rybakina, 26. After losing the first set, Mboko set up a return of jaws.
“I knew that last night it was going to be a very difficult game,” said Lamarche, noting that Mboko lost to Rybakina 6-3, 7-5 two weeks ago in the quarterfinals of Washington Open.
The incipient Canadian tennis star fought against multiple points of the game to return and beat the sown No. 9 Elena Rybakina in a rash of the third set.
‘Attitude without fear’
Lamarche worried about Rybakina’s style of play would be more complicated for his former student, but he says Mboko’s performance “and really, his attitude of no fear, he only appeared again. [at]”
The former Mboko coach says that his return against Rybakina somehow echoed his same bases in the sport.
He learned to play with his sister, and Lamarche remembers that Mboko hated losing so much before her than when it happened, “she enraged”, despite being much younger.
“Finally, she conquered her sister,” he said.
Lamarche began training Mboko and his three brothers 15 years ago, after encouraging his mother to transfer them from Toronto to Burlington, where he was.
Mboko’s parents, Cyprien Mboko and Godee Kitadi, had transferred to the North Carolina family, where Mboko was born. They recently told the Women’s Tennis Association who had emigrated to the United States from the Democratic Republic of Congo in 1999 due to political agitation.
“They are a great family, very supportive, the type of family for which you would do anything,” Lamarche said. “And they did a lot for us.”
The coach says that the power, both physical and mental, has been a distinctive seal of the surprising ascent of Mboko in Montreal this week. Including in his victories about Rybakina, Sofia Kenin and the winner of the France Open 2025 Coco Goorf.
While the Canadian tennis star Victoria Mboko prepares for its end against Naomi Osaka at the National Bank Open in Montreal, her childhood coach, Pierre Lamarche, recalls her impulse, focus and how much hate the promising star to lose losing
Lamarche says that it is also what will help him tonight, since he faces the four times champion of Grand Slam Naomi Osaka.
“The power in his service, the power in his right and power in his mental tenacity … Vicky will have to play his game and play with the same abandonment he has shown updated,” he said.
Overcome setbacks
The road to this year’s Canadian open has not always been soft for the young player, says Sarah Kadi.
The registered coach of the Female Tennis Association (WTA) and Tennis Canada accompanied an eight -year -old Mboko, to a Tournament in Florida 10 years ago.
At that time, Kadi says that Mboko was already exhibiting the qualities that have helped him win over and over again: he has 33 victories to his credit so far this year.
“I was sure and wanted to win at anything,” News Network told CBC. “You could see the belief in itself.”
Although this belief has remained strong, Kadi says that Mboko has faced setbacks in recent years, including a series of knee injuries, in addition to having to spend almost half a year of his family due to Covid-19 restrictions while on the way for competitions.
“His balance in court has been exceptional, facing these great players,” Kadi said. “She steps on the Court without a doubt. You know she thinks she can win and is showing it.”
