OverDrive - Roe on Mboko's rise to stardom, the impressive NBO run and elevating in the rankings

Episode Date: August 5, 2025

TSN Tennis Analyst Mark Roe joined OverDrive to discuss the headlines from the National Bank Open, Victoria Mboko's incredible run in the tournament, her skill set on the court, skyrocketing the rankings in the WTA Tour and more.

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As opposed to DiStefano Which way you want me to go here, Michael? You do whichever you feel necessary Okay There you go Brother it is I'm Mark Roe will join us in just a moment to talk about Vicki Mboko, who is doing all types of incredible things at the National Bank

Open in Montreal, the first Canadian to reach the WTA-1000 event semifinals since Bianca did it in 2019, the youngest woman to reach the semi since Belinda Benchich in 2015. She's not even 19 years old, Vicki Mboko, and is doing the things that she's been doing. It's incredible to watch. She smoked Cocoa Gough over the weekend. It's like 6-1, 6-2, just absolutely cruised through it. Like, she was number one seat, the Coco Goss, one of the best tennis players in the world. It's impressive stuff.

It's so funny. I was thinking about this. There's something unique about being, like, a Canadian athlete where I feel like the whole country really really gets behind you. And it feels like there's some sort of, like, imboco craze right now. Everyone's talking about it. It's like absolute cooler talk. Whereas I'm not sure that's the case with, like, you know, the Americans more so because there's just so much going on. There's so many other players.

Too big of a country. Too big, right? and they got so many, so many different, you know, whether it's golf or it's tennis or whatever it may be. I feel like Canadians, they always kind of get behind them really well, and right now it's Mbocos. Yeah, it's Mbocco and Summer Macintosh right now. Summer is summer.

Yeah. What an athlete. She's unbelievable. She is a machine, as is the young athlete who's 12 from China. 12 years old, what were you doing at 12 years old? Not much. Nothing. Nothing.

Literally, literally nothing. I was playing video games. I was playing video games, a little D-to-D-D pass. with Jason Strudwick over to Taylor Chorney Truddy to Chorney up to Taylor Hall that's that's what I did

back of the day What a reference You think that happened You played with Chorney didn't you? Were you in the Chorney era? Yeah, I was there Yeah, I guided him

That probably happened Did you call it the Chorney era? I did Okay The Taylor Chorney era All right Let's welcome in a man who is very familiar

with Taylor Chorney and Vicki Moko He is Mark Rowe from TSN Sports Center and does a fantastic job of covering tennis Oh, my God, he looks unbelievable. Look how good he looks.

What is going on? Like, how do you look so fantastic from your home office, Mark? Your skin looks amazing. It's the home filter, right? That takes off 10 pounds, right? You do look great, Mark. That orange shirt. Is that a new TSN golf shirt?

That looks really nice. Where did you get that one? I got it from TSN. I don't know if it's this year's or five years ago, but it's in the closet. Yeah, it's a good looking shirt. All right. So, Vicki and Boko, Mark, we had a lot of. you on my show in the morning here at TSN 1050 a couple of months ago, and you kept on

reiterating. Vicki Mboko is the next big star in Canadian tennis from the women's perspective. And that has certainly come to fruition here at the National Bank Open. I mean, could she win this thing? Like at this point in time, why not? Well, she at least has a 25% chance because she's into the semifinals. She goes into this match against Rabakana as an underdog, although she was an underdog against Cocoa Golf, and we just saw Rabakana play Layla Annie Fernandez in Washington,

and she had that match all wrapped up and then couldn't close it out. And that's been her problem. As a former Wimbledon champion, she probably should have more major titles to her name, and she doesn't. So at this point, you know, Boko doesn't have the pressure. She's going to have the crowd. She's playing fantastic. She has the ability to play at that level.

She just doesn't have the experience that her opponent. I don't want to put too much pressure on her, but it's been a wild ride that I'm somewhat surprised because it's happening this early in her career, but as someone who's actually got to watch her in person as a junior, I'm not surprised that she's having success. What is her superpower? What does she do so well that others can't handle? Her serve is unbelievable. You know, she can crank it 170, 180 sometimes.

And, you know, the, you saw a loud. Last night, Boozes Minero attack her forehand a little bit. And it's not to say that that's a weak shot, but that's a shot that can get better. The backhand, and specifically the backhand down the line, is a world-class shot that she has as a teenager, which is wild to say. So, you know, one of the first things that I heard from coaches when I was watching her play as a 16-year-old in New York at the U.S. Open, they kept using the same word, weapons. She has weapons, and there's no way that you can win. on this tour without them. And when they're saying that, that was three summers ago, when they're saying that at that stage, you know, that's when it really caught my attention

and we might have something really special here. Well, Mark, before you came on, we were talking about how, you know, it's unique sometimes when Canadian athletes, you know, particularly in like the individual athletes in those sports get going. It really sparks a craze and a buzz within the country. And it seems to be what's happening right now with Mbocco. And, you know, we saw it a few years back with Bianca and Drescu when she wanted to be. And she wanted to do that. on the tournament back in 2019. Like, how does this tournament compare and the kind of craze compare to back then?

Yeah, so I would say a little more unexpected than when Andrescu did it because remember earlier in the year she had won Indian Wells and she had gone on her a meteoric rise and then she got injured and we didn't see her for a few months and she returned to playing in Toronto that year and then went on another run and it was still somewhat improbable that she did it given that she was dealing with an injury.

She had to play Serena Williams in the final. Obviously, she backed that up and won the U.S. Open, you know, a couple weeks later. But it's, you can compare it to that one. You compare it to Dennis Chapalvala back in 2017 when he defeated Rafin Adal, also as an 18-year-old. Like, we've seen this story before with Canadian tennis, and it's led to big expectations, and a lot of those players haven't met those expectations yet, and Vicki and Boko is now the next star, you know, to kind of carry the flag in this sport. and someone whose potential is really limitless.

Mark, Rowe with us here on Overdrive. Mark, can you give us the Vicki Mboko origin story because literally no one had heard of her at the beginning of the year. She was ranked in the 300s worldwide, and all of a sudden, she's taking the tennis world by storm. How did this come to be? So the origin story, much as it is made of your co-host on the morning show, she's not Italian.

She's not. She comes, she comes actually, because when I first said the name to him, I mean, he heard of Valpy, and he got excited. But no, her family. Truddy, Coley Acovo was like, Forza. And Marlborough was like, no, she's not. She's not Italian. Sorry, Carlo.

So, yeah, her family immigrated from Congo. She was bored in Charlotte, North Carolina, but moved to Toronto at an early age. And that's when she, obviously, picked up this sport and comes from a family of tennis players. She's had obviously the most success. She's the youngest one. Her sister, Gracia, who I got to meet in person in New York. she's the one that you often see in her coach's box all the time and she's someone that tennis Canada selected pretty early in her career

as someone who has a great amount of potential and she had a great junior career at that US Open she reached the semifinals and at the junior level it's so tough to analyze where this player can go because she didn't win that tournament but I would talking to a lot of people she probably had the most talent out of all the junior players at that year and then, you know, she had a couple of years of injuries,

and now she is making some big strides on the senior tour. And it's going to be exciting to see what she does tomorrow and what she does at the U.S. Open and what she does over the next, you know, 10 years or so. So you touched a little bit. Some of the other young Canadian tennis players that came in had success, or they maybe were able to keep that up and be, you know, continually kind of successful.

So when you look at her and you talk about her weapons, why do you expect her, do you think that she could push on and have some consistency, you know, at or near the top of her sport? You know, it's right. It's a risk saying it because I was here four or five years ago saying, Dennis Chappell-Ballop's definitely going to win a major. And Felix O'Shea-Sea and Bianca Drescue, this U.S. opens the first of many. And if you roll back that tape, I look like an idiot.

But then again, everyone was saying it. And that's, you know, that's individual sports. We see it in golf. You know, we've seen it with Brooke Henderson struggling a little bit. like we we have these projections especially when you do something young and you know like if it's a hockey player and you score 40 goals and you're only 20 you just assume that they're going to score 50 four or five more times in their career and it doesn't always happen that way you know for and boco obviously she has the skill uh i've been really impressed with the way that she's

held her composure in a lot of these matches they often say in tennis the toughest match is the one after the big upset and that was last night for her and I wondered how she would approach that match against Jessica Buzis Manero. And she was a little more conservative early on in the match and maybe was feeling things out. But to come through and win that in straight sets, that's a mature performance from someone who's in uncharted territory for her. Mark, Mboko Mania has taken over Montreal on the women's side.

What about here in Toronto? How do you see it all playing out? Yeah, it's been a weird men's dream. just because a lot of the big names, due to the scheduling, we don't see Alcrez, we don't see Sinner. I thought it was a big opportunity for some of the Canadians to go deep. Unfortunately, Gabriel Diallo had to face Taylor Fritz early on in the tournament. And I think Taylor Fritz is probably, he's going to play in the quarterfinals today.

I would give him the slight favorite nod, and right beyond him would be Ben Shelton, the other American. I think there's played really well. The last couple of years, they've had really good North American hard court seasons. last night Alex Zavarup beat the defending champion Alexei Popperin but I would put those two Americans as kind of one A, one B to win the title and then you have the likes of like Zavarup and a Rubev and a shot off right behind them. We encourage everybody to tune in on the TSN YouTube channel to see Mark Rowe.

He looks unbelievable today. It's worth a look. And Stradi, I know you agree. Guys, this is the best looking overdrive I think that they've had in years. I agree. I agree. We mentioned that off the top. They thought about not putting this on TV,

and then the executive saw who was on the roster, and they're like, we're putting it back on TSA. Yeah. Yeah. They saw who the first guest was. That's it. And they were like, yeah. And don't forget Tim Kirkagin as well.

Tim Kirkagin as well, very handsome. And have you talked about Struddy's beautiful Edmonton tan right now? Because it looks fantastic. Guys, thank you. Thank you for noticing from one to another. It's nice to notice another person to stand back. The first sunny day of 2025 and can today so that's probably why thank you markey all right appreciate it guys all right

that's mark row from tsn terrific stuff on vicky and boco is that a marky is that a normal nickname you get i don't know mark mark row you know you just add the why it's a hockey thing i'm trying to fit in with strutty i don't know if you're in like that with mark row we'll have to find out i think it works better because that's to be a last name right since that's maybe roe rosy rosy rosy roser but i understand you're probably a bit rattled the whole drive-in where al's brother was talking to someone else so you're not yourself right now and i get it so we'll give you a pass uh straddy what is the edmonton tennis scene like you guys have any tournaments roll through are you a tennis player yourself you seem like a pickleball

guy to me yeah i just picked up tennis about two years ago and uh had some pretty significant wins in division six and where i go um you know mostly i played against other other not i'm a mom but moms that's the level i was at and then i beat a couple of them uh intimidate them some trash talking obviously uh but some of them gave me a good beating too so i'm i'm hoping to move up to level five okay in the fall well you're an imposing force at the net wouldn't be easy to yeah you know passing shots i'm scared of the net i like to sit back i'm walking the i'm walking the line back and forth like uh you know morgan riley back and forth on the on the baseline Morgan Riley.

Everyone's telling me to get up to the net. I don't want to go to the net because people hit it over my head, right? Then I have to run back. Yeah, I'm not, I'm not, I just, I've never played just two years ago. I just started. It's a great sport. It's a great sport. I don't really play anything except golf.

I'm afraid of getting hurt, so that's pretty much it. Like what, a hamstring or something? Yeah, I'll get, I'll hurt something and I'll hurt my shoulder and I can't play golf, then I'll just be utterly miserable. Oh, I see. That's a lot. You don't want to hurt. I just, I'm golf outings.

remarkably conscious of potentially getting injured. Are you a good golfer? I'm okay. I'm all right. I'm like the same as Hayes. Like we're both maybe like, you know, eights or nines. I'm in that range.

Yeah, I can play some golf, but I'm just very conscious of getting injured. Mr. Chips, I believe they got you. Yeah, Bob Weeks. Bob Weeks did give me the nickname of Mr. Chips. I'm very adept at chipping the golf ball. Nothing else, really, but just chipping is by four times. Soft.

That's a nice thing that. That's a nice nickname to have. Wow. On and off the course, strutty. and off the course. Not really in that case at all. So yeah, Tim Kirkagin joining us in about half an hour here on Overdrive. We'll talk about the Jay's game two tonight. How many wins will they beat the Rockies by tonight? What's the spread? Four and a half, five and a half runs. Let me check the over under.

We'll come back with the over under. All right, we'll come back with the overrunner. It's Rios on the Hill. Confirm or deny coming up at 530. Steve Phillips in the show, Robert Turbin on the show. And we need to ask Robert, the three of us, all are fans of garbage NFL teams. Although you might take issue with. with that. The Colts, I'm a Struddy, you're a Giants fan. I'm a Jets fan. Oh, God. It's really rough here. It's really rough here, which are the three teams. Can we be most optimistic about? We'll ask Robert Turbin about that a little bit later, an hour three of overdrive. As we continue here in hour one. Time now for TSN 1050 time saver traffic.

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