Fresh off a nomination for the WTA’s Newcomer of the Year award, Victoria Mboko has snagged an honor much closer to home. The 19-year-old was presented the key to her hometown city of Burlington, Ontario on Friday for what local officials called in “inspiring” rise on the WTA tour.
Mboko, born in Charlotte, North Carolina, has resided in Canada since the age of 2 months, and now makes the nearly 200,000-person city located at the southwestern end of Lake Ontario her home. Since 2019, Burlington has presented notable residents with a key to the city to celebrate their achievements, and Mboko received hers at a newly-opened community center.
Secretary of State for Sport Adam van Koeverden said that Mboko’s August run through the Omnium Banque Nationale in Montreal “stole the hearts of Canadians.” In her second WTA 1000 main draw, Mboko stormed to a historic title, defeating among others Coco Gauff, Elena Rybakina, and Naomi Osaka.
“We’ve always had great tennis players in Canada, but … whether we had watched tennis before or not, everyone was a tennis fan for those weeks,” he said.
