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Victoria Mboko was at a tennis tournament in France last month when she got an unexpected notification.
It was the morning before a match, and Mboko’s phone said the text message was from someone “maybe” named “Serena.”
“It could be anyone,” Mboko thought.
The message was from Serena Williams, arguably the greatest female tennis player of all time, and she was asking 19-year-old Mboko to be her doubles partner.
“How could I decline that?” Mboko said in an exclusive interview on Friday with CBC Sports host Anastasia Bucsis.
Mboko will be alongside Williams for the legend’s much-anticipated return to competitive tennis at the HSBC Championships at The Queen’s Club in West Kensington, London, next week. The women’s doubles tournament begins on Monday, and the final is set for June 14.
CBC Sports’ Anastasia Bucsis speaks with Canadian tennis player Victoria Mboko about joining forces with her new doubles partner Serena Williams.
It’s the latest highlight in what has been an ascendant rise over the past year for Burlington, Ont.’s Mboko.
She was ranked 85th heading into the National Bank Open on home soil last summer, only to take down formerly top-ranked Naomi Osaka in the final to win the women’s singles title.
Mboko is now the ninth-ranked woman in the world, and the top-ranked Canadian woman. Her star only continues to rise.
“I think I just keep on surprising myself every month,” Mboko told Bucsis. “It’s just a lot of exciting things that keep happening.”
Playing with Williams, who’s won 23 Grand Slam singles titles and 14 Grand Slam doubles championships, will surely be a career highlight.
Mboko sees lots to learn from a player she’s long considered an idol.
“I feel really honoured to be playing with someone of her calibre,” she said. “I personally think she’s the greatest women’s athlete of all time.”
First competitive match for Williams since 2022
Williams and Mboko have hit together just once since the partnership was publicly confirmed earlier this week. They’ll hit the court together again on Saturday, ahead of next week’s tournament.
“When I was practising with her, I was kind of focused on trying to have a good ball to hit against her and hopefully she admired the way I was hitting,” Mboko said. “When I think about it, though, I couldn’t imagine how much experience she has and how many times she’s probably been in so many different situations.”
The 44-year-old Williams accepted a wild card to play at The Queen’s Club’s grass-court tournament, after announcing in 2022 that she was “evolving” away from competitive tennis. Her last competitive match was at the 2022 U.S. Open.
Williams will also play doubles at the Berlin Tennis Open later in June. Her partner for that event hasn’t been announced yet.
As for Mboko, she doesn’t plan to change the approach that’s helped her skyrocket up the WTA singles rankings.
Every time she plays, it’s all or nothing.
“I just want to be myself,” she said. “I guess she chose me for a reason, so why should I change something up? I think I’m just going to go out on court and try to play my game. She’ll play her game and maybe we’ll be a great pair. Hopefully we’ll collab very well.”
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