Italian Open 2025: Coco Gauff vs Victoria Mboko preview, head-to-head, odds, prediction, and pick

Match Details

Fixture: (4) Coco Gauff vs (Q) Victoria Mboko

Date: May 9, 2025

Tournament: Italian Open 2025

Round: Second Round (Round of 64)

Venue: Foro Italico, Rome, Italy

Surface: Clay

Category: WTA 1000

Prize Money: €6,009,593

Live Telecast: USA - Tennis Channel | UK - Sky Sports | Canada - TSN

Coco Gauff vs Victoria Mboko preview

Fourth seed Coco Gauff will start her 2025 Italian Open campaign against Canadian qualifier Victoria Mboko in the second round. Gauff has a 19-7 win/loss record in 2025, with an excellent start to the season at the Unitec Cup, helping the United States win the title. However, since then her form dipped a little bit as she lost in the quarterfinal of the Australian Open against Paula Badosa and did not make any deep runs in the subsequent WTA 1000 events.

Gauff did not have a great start to the clay season as well, losing 4-6, 3-6 to Jasmine Paolini in the second round of the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix. However, things turned for the American at the Madrid Open, as she won against the likes of Belinda Bencic, Mirra Andreeva, and Iga Swiatek to reach the final, where she lost 3-6, 6-7 (3) against top seed Aryna Sabalenka.

Meanwhile, Victoria Mboko attracted attention at the only WTA-Tour level event she played in Miami this year. The Canadian won her first match against Camila Osorio and faced off against World No. 10 Paula Badosa in the second round. In a thrilling three-set contest, the Spaniard won 7-5, 1-6, 7-6 (3). However, Mboko has been in red-hot form on the ITF Tour, already winning five titles this year.

At the Italian Open, she began with a 6-3, 6-2 win over Cristina Bucsa and a 4-6, 6-1, 6-1 win over Kamilla Rakhimova in the qualifying rounds. She began her main draw with a 6-2, 6-3 win over local player Arianna Zucchini in the first round.

Coco Gauff vs Victoria Mboko head-to-head

This will be the first meeting between the two players on the WTA Tour.

Coco Gauff vs Victoria Mboko odds

Player Name	Moneyline	Handicap Bets	Total Games
Coco Gauff	-1000	TBD	TBD
Victoria Mboko	+550	TBD	TBD

(Odds sourced from BetMGM)

Coco Gauff vs Victoria Mboko prediction

Gauff has a 72 percent win rate on clay, winning one title from three finals. Her only title on the surface came at the 2021 Emilia-Romagnia Open, where she beat Wang Qiang 6-1, 6-3in the final. She reached the semifinals of the Italian Open last year, losing 4-6, 3-6 to Iga Swiatek.

Meanwhile, Mboko has not played too many Tour-level matches on clay as of yet, and the Canadian's only claycourt success came at the ITF event in Darmstadt, where she won the title against Angela Fita Boluda in the final.

Gauff is the favorite for this match as she is the higher-ranked player and the better clay-court player than Mboko.

Pick- Gauff to win in straight sets

About the author

Sagnik, a Mass Communication and Journalism graduate, is a tennis journalist at Sportskeeda. Before finding his spot in the tennis writing team, he worked as a junior content specialist for academic content writing firms for a couple of years.

Before putting out any information in the public domain, Sagnik makes sure that every element of his content is well-researched and backed with credible data so that there is no misinterpretation of facts or quotes and ethical standards are maintained. To do so, Sagnik follows reputed websites like the Tennis Channel and Tennis TV, and renowned journalists on social media.

He is a fan of former player Roger Federer, and just like his favorite player, Sagnik likes to bring perfection to his write-ups by providing concise and on-point content. Speaking of the ‘GOAT’ debate, Sagnik believes that it is a bit unfair to compare the legends of the game from different eras who have played on different terms. But if he were to pick one, he’d go for Novak Djokovic based on his tally of 24 Grand Slam titles.

When not writing about tennis and technically analyzing the sport, which he believes are his 'forte', Sagnik indulges in reading books.

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Edited by Samya Majumdar