She began 2025 playing a small tournament in Martinique, France. Victoria Mboko, ranked No. 333 in the world, won all five of her matches and collected a then-grand total of $3,935.

“I didn’t really hold that much expectation for myself,” she told wtatennis.com on Monday in Adelaide. “My goal honestly at the beginning was just to make the qualies of Grand Slams.

“Of course, I kind of exceeded what I thought I would have done.”

Kind of.

On Tuesday, Mboko vaulted into the quarterfinals of the Adelaide International with a rousing 6-2, 3-6, 7-6 (6) victory over Anna Kalinskaya. Mboko saved two match points in a thriller that went nearly two-and-a-half hours. She’ll meet the winner of Wednesday’s match between No. 2 seed and reigning Australian Open champion Madison Keys and qualifier Tereza Valentova.

It’s another impressive step forward for the 19-year-old Canadian.

Not only did Mboko make the qualifying last year at Roland Garros, but she won two more matches in the main draw. She got through qualifying at Wimbledon, too, and won her opening match. By the time of the US Open, she was ranked inside the Top 25 and was seeded in the main draw. 

In a dazzling, vertiginous 10 months, Mboko won the WTA 1000 title in Montreal — in her home country — and was also the late-season champion in Hong Kong. Her year-end ranking was a not-to-be-believed No. 18. 

Mboko and 18-year-old Mirra Andreeva are the only teenagers in the WTA Tour Driven by Mercedes-Benz Top 25.

It’s instructive that Mboko isn’t dwelling on her breakthrough success but, rather, looking forward. In a candid, far-ranging conversation, she was thoughtful and displayed a remarkable maturity.

“It’s always nice to go into your break on a high note,” she said. “I think that was pretty good for me mentally. I kind of forgot about it. It’s in the past and I don’t think carrying it on to other events is really relevant for me.

“I always see a new week as another opportunity.”

Mboko has followed an unusual path to the top of professional tennis. Her parents, Cyprien Mboko and mother Godee Kitadi left the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Victoria, the youngest of four siblings, was born in Charlotte, North Carolina. The family moved to Toronto when she was two months old. 

Sister Grace and brother Kevin both played college tennis, and Victoria was already swinging a racquet at the age of four.

The Montreal title featured startling wins over Grand Slam champions Sofia Kenin, Coco Gauff, Elena Rybakina and, in the final, Naomi Osaka. That run, Mboko said, changed the way people, including herself, perceived her.

“Honestly, I wanted to win one or two rounds going into the tournament,” Mboko said. “But having the support of the country and having the support of the fans really kept me really going. Honestly, I was having so much fun that those two weeks went by so fast. It came so quickly.

“I started getting recognized a lot more on the streets or places like the grocery store. There’s just so many more things that happen to me because I’m at a different stage of my life — and I just have to get used to it.”

Mboko focused her offseason workouts on gaining strength and building more stamina. All four of her matches this year have gone the distance, and she’s won three of them, including a United Cup win over China’s Zhu Lin and a 5-7, 6-3, 6-2 decision over Beatriz Haddad Maia in Adelaide’s first round.

She is acutely aware of the disparity in experience.

“Most of the time they are older than me,” she said. “I feel like I always have to up my level of play and try to hang in there with the older girls and try to match their pace and strength. No matter how many points you have to defend, you can always make it up in any other week, so I don’t really think much of it.”

Mboko was named the WTA’s Newcomer of the Year, joining a long tradition of early excellence. Here is just a partial list of previous winners: Tracy Austin (1977), Martina Hingis (1995), Venus and Serena Williams (1997 and 1998), Petra Kvitova (2010), Aryna Sabalenka (2018) and Mirra Andreeva (2023).

“I feel like there’s a history of the people who won that award, so that was real cool,” she said. “Having that title or that platform really comes with a lot of responsibility, so it would be nice to maintain more consistency this year.

“If you have pressure, then you’re doing something right. And you’re a player people want to play — and want to beat. So, I think it’s important for me to just stay grounded and keep my head up no matter what.”