At Indian Wells, Keep Your Eye on Victoria Mboko and Jakub Mensik

Indian Wells, aka the BNP Paribas Open, aka the “fifth Grand Slam,” kicks into another gear today as many of the tournament’s seeded players take to the court for their first matches. (On the women’s side, No. 1 seeds Aryna Sabalenka, Coco Gauff and Naomi Osaka are all participating; on the men’s side, Jannik Sinner, Lorenzo Musetti, Alexander Zverev and a host of American players: Learner Tien, Ben Shelton, Reilly Opelka, Brandon Nakashima, Jenson Brooksby, Frances Tiafoe, Zachary Svajda, Marcos Giron and Tommy Paul.)

Are most of us still rooting for another epic finals showdown between Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz? In fact, we do, and currently Sinner is in dire straits and needs an upgrade. Are many of us eager to see Sabalenka attempt to add a giant trophy to the new hardware on her ring finger—perhaps against Gauff, who at her best can blunt Sabalenka’s nuclear strikes with her sheer grit and cunning strategy? Yes.

But we’re also keeping a close eye on two players today as they move up the rankings and defeat more experienced opponents. Two years ago, 19-year-old Canadian Vicky Mboko’s WTA ranking was around 300. She is now ranked 10th, beating recent opponents including Naomi Osaka, Mirra Andreeva and Elena Rybakina. (Among other honors, she is the fastest player to move from No. 200 to the top 10 since Jennifer Capriati in 1990.)

A few months ago, Mboko was in New York for Chanel’s Métiers d’Art show, where she became fast friends with Jon Bon Jovi, a tennis (and apparently fashion) fan. “It was just fate that we were able to have a conversation,” Mboko told us at a court in Palm Desert near the Indian Wells tournament, where she filmed a promotional video for Wilson Tennis before the tournament. (Mboko, one of Wilson’s so-called head-to-toe athletes, wears Wilson apparel and shoes and hits the ball with a Wilson blade racquet.) “He told me he was going to the Miami Open, so hopefully I’ll see him there again.” (Interesting side note: Mboko has played with Wilson her entire life. “My first racquet was a Wilson Spongebob,” she said.

This is Mboko’s first time competing in Indian Wells, so she’s spending most of her time training rather than exploring, but she hopes to change that soon, pending her schedule. “I want to go somewhere where I can see more of the landscape — maybe one day I can go hiking in the mountains,” she said.

First, though, she’ll have to contend with Australia’s No. 69 Kimberly Birrell in today’s opening match, and could face anyone from Osaka to Sabalenka to 18-year-old American phenom Iva Jovic as she makes her way to the tournament. Mboko is keeping the pressure low, though. “Honestly, I don’t set expectations for myself — I mean, anyone can win a trophy,” she said. “You can have good weeks and you can have bad weeks, so you have to stay positive.”