QATAR TOTAL ENERGIES OPEN

February 13, 2026

Victoria Mboko

Press Conference

V. MBOKO/J. Ostapenko

6-3, 6-2

THE MODERATOR: Vicky, congrats, into the final here in Doha. How are you feeling, and talk us through the match a little bit as well.

VICTORIA MBOKO: Yeah, I feel pretty great. It was a difficult match, especially her starting off really well. I felt like I had to pick up my intensity and my level of play. I'm glad to have got it done today. She's a great player, and we'll see who comes in the final.

THE MODERATOR: Questions?

Q. Started to get a little bit closer at 5-Love in the second set. What did you do to kind of reset and finish as strongly as you did?

VICTORIA MBOKO: Yeah. Well, I feel like she was kind of hitting really loose on her shots, and kind of going for her balls. She was playing really great, putting a lot of pressure on me. I will admit, I did feel the pressure a little bit. But I think in the moment where it came time to lock in and try to close the best I could, that was the most important for me in the moment. I'm glad to have held that game because you never know what could happen. Tennis can switch so fast, so to get it done that fast was ideal for me.

Q. You really took advantage of her serve, and aside from the break points, I think you won 52 percent of her first service points. What did you see from her serve that you were able to capitalize on it?

VICTORIA MBOKO: Well, I feel like when she made her first serve it was a pretty good first serve, and I kind of just did whatever I could to get it back on the court. Yeah, I think just trying to find my moments the best I could to try to break her serve. She plays really aggressive too, so, honestly, retrieving as many balls as I could in those moments I would say were ideal for me and, yeah.

Q. At this point you don't know who you are going to play in the final. Can you talk about your possible opponents.

VICTORIA MBOKO: Yeah, well it's Karolina Muchova or Maria Sakkari. I don't really know either of their games that well. They made it this far, so I know they're playing pretty good tennis. Yeah, I don't want to change something up because what I've been doing has been working so far.

Yeah, I just want to rest up the best I can, focus for tomorrow, tomorrow's a new day, and just play my game against either one.

Q. You're projected to make your top-10 debut because of this result. How does that feel?

VICTORIA MBOKO: Yeah, it's kind of crazy. I never expected something to happen so fast for me. Yeah, I just have been taking it day by day, tournament by tournament. Every tournament I enter, I want to do well. I don't really, I don't hold that much expectation of myself. It's not like when I enter a tournament I'm going to say I'm going to win it, but you always want to try your best.

I think this came relatively fast, but it's a nice feeling. It's nice to see that, to have that milestone, to see that number. So, yeah, I'm pretty happy with that.

Q. Now that you're in the top 10 already, do you have any other specific goals? Like, what's the next milestone? Have you ever thought about that right now?

VICTORIA MBOKO: Sorry, could you repeat the first part.

Q. Now that you're in the top 10, do you have another milestone that you're looking at? What's the next milestone? Is it top 5 or win a Grand Slam?

VICTORIA MBOKO: Not really. I don't really set goals for myself, just because I just like to surprise myself along the way. You never know what's going to happen in tennis. You can have high moments, you can have also low moments. I think just being positive with myself with whatever happens, it's all a part of the process. As long as I'm having fun doing what I love, it's going to pay off at the end of the day and, who knows, maybe good things may come my way in the future.

Q. You are still so young, but I'm assuming that you have gone through ups and downs already. So if you had to pick one specific tournament or match, or like an important decision, switching coaches or changing the practice environment, which one do you say that was sort of the turning point of your career?

VICTORIA MBOKO: The turning point that has happened in my career or yet to come? I mean, I wouldn't say there is a significant turning point. Last year I just wanted to start off playing a lot of lower-tier tournaments. I mean, of course my ranking wasn't helping me getting into higher tournaments.

I think in the past I struggled with a lot of injuries as a junior, and I wasn't able to play that many tournaments. I think in two years I only, I didn't play that many matches.

So my goal for last year was just to play a lot of tournaments, collect rhythm, get a lot of matches under my belt, and slowly try to do better the next week. Little did I know that I was playing in the WTA events sooner than I thought. I tried to capitalize on how many matches and tournaments I played to my advantage. I think gradually throughout the year, especially last year, trying to find my footing helped me a lot, and made me gain a lot of confidence within myself and with my game.

Q. Iga and Aryna have already pulled out of Dubai next week. Obviously you're focused on this tournament, but having played so many matches this year what are you doing to prioritize your recovery to kind of prepare for these kinds of turnarounds that are expected of this calendar?

VICTORIA MBOKO: I think training plays a big part, the way you train, putting a lot of emphasis on fitness. It is a lot of matches, and the tournaments are really close to each other, so it's hard to try to manage that. Of course, you want to manage your tournament schedule the best you can. But yeah, I think just, from a recovery standpoint and doing good physio, having good fitness and good routines help you kind of last longer in that sense. I'm trying to improve that in a way. I mean, we're always focused on it, but I think it's important to also prioritize everything else off court that's not related to tennis.