Victoria Mboko and Coco Gauff are both due to play in this year’s Qatar Open, with the draw having been made to show who their singles opponents might be.
However, this will not be their sole concern in the coming week, as they also have doubles matches to contend with.
They are due to play with one another, in a partnership that may have shocked many, given there was little indication of a prior relationship aside from a few matches against one another in 2025.
Well, speaking ahead of their return to action in the Middle East, Victoria Mboko has now explained how this unlikely pairing came about.
Victoria Mboko explains her doubles partnership with Coco Gauff
Perhaps unsurprisingly, neither player was each other’s first choice.
And yet, it seems to have turned into a happy coincidence, forging a North American powerhouse doubles team that has united American Coco Gauff with Canadian Mboko.
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The latter shared the ‘unfortunate’ situation that led to this union, claiming: “We were actually both entered with two other players.
“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!”
Given Gauff had plenty of praise for Mboko after they played in Rome last year, this is a team that she and the entire tennis world will be glad to see come together.
They will face the seventh seed duo of Nicole Melichar-Martinez and Cristina Bucsa in the first round.
Victoria Mboko and Coco Gauff’s doubles records
Whilst Mboko is still relatively inexperienced on the professional tour, and Gauff should be given her age, both have still found time to play plenty of doubles.
Naturally, the two-time Grand Slam champion has had more, given she first burst onto the scene at just 15 years of age.
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She has since won a doubles major title at the French Open, whilst also reaching the final of the US Open doubles event in 2021 too.
Gauff was the highest-ranked doubles player in the world in 2022 as well, with a career record of 148 wins and just 66 losses.
Mboko, meanwhile, played her first doubles Grand Slam event last month, losing in the second round in Melbourne.
She has played just 37 tour-level doubles matches in her career, winning 18 and losing 19.
