“It’s pretty cool!” Victoria Mboko talks Coco Gauff doubles at 2026 WTA Doha

DOHA, Qatar—Victoria Mboko was one of last season’s biggest breakout stars, and now the 2025 WTA Newcomer of the Year is making her Qatar TotalEnergies Open debut with an all-star doubles pairing alongside Coco Gauff.

“We were actually both entered with two other players,” the Canadian teenager told Tennis Channel on Saturday, “but unfortunately, neither of us were able to make it into the draw with our original partners.

“So, we were like, ‘Wanna play?’ and so, it just came about. But it’s pretty cool!”

Mboko burst onto the scene at the Omnium Banque Nationale in Montréal last summer, not only winning her first WTA 1000 title but her first WTA title on any level with stunning upsets over Elena Rybakina, Naomi Osaka, and Gauff herself. She finished the 2025 season with a second title run in Hong Kong and began the 2026 season with a run to the Australian Open’s second week.

A former No. 1 in doubles, Gauff has formed her share of dynamic duos with the WTA’s next generation, partnering Alexandra Eala for a successful run at the 2025 Internazionali BNL d’Italia.

Having made her WTA debut at 15, Gauff is no more than two and three years older than the current crop of rising stars like Mboko, Eala, and fellow American Iva Jovic—a development the 21-year-old American welcomes with open arms.

“It was very lonely for me, honestly,” Gauff confessed of her early years on tour last month at the Australian Open. “So, it's great to have, like, more people of my age range doing better, so I can see them at tournaments more, because I had a lot of friends, but we weren't playing the same tournaments. It was tough to keep up with those relationships.

“I felt like the last couple of years or maybe last two years on tour have been some of my happiest, even though maybe the tennis has been up and down just because you see more friendly faces in the locker room that you can actually be with.”

Unseeded in the Doha doubles draw, Gauff and Mboko will face No. 7 seeds Cristina Bucșa and Nicole Melichar-Martinez in the first round.