ROLAND GARROS

May 30, 2025

Victoria Mboko

Press Conference

ZHENG Q./V. Mboko

6-3, 6-4

THE MODERATOR: Give us your thoughts on the tournament experience as a whole.

VICTORIA MBOKO: Yeah, my first Grand Slam, the experience was pretty nice. To make the round of 32 anyways, I think it's a pretty good result for me.

Today was a tough battle against Qinwen. She played really good tennis. Lots of things to learn and hopefully come back to my next tournament with some more positives and improved on my game.

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. Could you tell us for people that don't follow you daily what the role Nathalie Tauziat had for your career.

VICTORIA MBOKO: I've known Nathalie since I was a junior. She was a part-time coach at Tennis Canada. I didn't really travel with her a lot as a junior. But starting this year she was traveling more and more with me, especially at the beginning of this year, when she could.

I mean, she's been with me for most of my tournaments so far this year. Yeah, she's great to work with. You know, she knows me very well. I think that makes things a lot easier, especially when the coach already knows your personality, what you like and what you don't like. Those things have been working out pretty well, yeah.

Q. After the accident in the stands, was it a problem for you to continue playing?

VICTORIA MBOKO: Yeah, I mean, it was a very abrupt thing that happened. I had no idea even what was going on at the beginning.

Yeah, I didn't really sit down because I wanted to keep the blood flowing. I was bouncing around on the changeover on the seat.

I don't think it was that much of a stop for me 'cause I won the game after anyways. But yeah, that was unfortunate that had to happen during the match. I think it was fine. I think I handled it fine.

Q. I want to go back to your coach a little bit. On the tour, we don't have that many female coaches. Maybe a little bit tough for you to compare. What do you think is the benefit as a female player of having female coach by your side?

VICTORIA MBOKO: Yeah, so I feel like for me having a male or female coach really doesn't make that big of a difference. Of course, having a female there, you relate a lot more. I mean, they know more the women's game. They know the struggles that a woman can go through on tour. In that aspect it could be a little bit easier to try to understand some things that a man cannot.

Overall, I mean, I feel like I'm very lenient towards those things, whether I had a male coach. It wouldn't be that different for me anyways.

Q. (Question about the conditions.)

VICTORIA MBOKO: Today wasn't too, too hot. Of course, today was one of the warmest days I think of the tournament. But overall I think I felt fine on court. I mean, it was pretty hot, but I think we were both playing pretty fine. We didn't really suffer that much.

Q. You've played three top-10 players: Badosa, Coco, now Zheng. Can you compare who hits harder, whose ball is tougher to handle for you? How do you compare the three of them?

VICTORIA MBOKO: Honestly, I think all three of them hit pretty hard (smiling). No, but all three of them also have a very unique game.

Qinwen today, she has really heavy and hard balls, yeah, shots on her ball. I mean, I think I was struggling a lot with that. Especially on the clay, her ball is really effective.

Coco, she is very athletic. She moves very well. She's on every single ball. She still hits powerful shots.

Maybe with Paula, she hits also an incredibly hard ball.

I played all three of them on different surfaces, so it's kind of hard to compare. Yeah, it's obviously a really difficult level to play against them. But I'm glad to have experienced that overall against them.

Q. That was the actual question. Now that you've seen what the level is at the very, very top level, do you go to work and figure what you need to do to be able to stay in rallies all day long with that quality of ball?

VICTORIA MBOKO: Yeah, that could also just relate to the fitness aspect, too. I feel like hitting-wise I think I could also handle the shots, as well. I've been playing against a lot of hard-hitters anyways.

But I think it's just a matter of fitness, a matter of stamina, a lot of working in the gym towards those stuff. I think it's just a matter of time at the end of the day.

Q. How do you feel about Qinwen's performance today? What do you think was the key to make the difference? In the second set you got a bunch of break points, but didn't convert.

VICTORIA MBOKO: Yeah, Qinwen, I think she has a very powerful game. I find that she was dictating a lot. Especially I think she had a really great forehand that was able to open up the court a lot easier than I could. I think she has a really great serve, too. She has a lot of good accuracy. She was hitting a lot of lines.

Yeah, I think that also made a big difference. I was not able to break as much as she was able to because I think she was just really serving very powerful. I couldn't really keep up with her speed on some of the shots.