'Maybe Serena': How a text message led to a partnership of a lifetime for Victoria Mboko

Victoria Mboko was at a tennis tournament in France last month when she got an unexpected notification.

It was the morning before a match, and Mboko's phone said the text message was from someone "maybe" named "Serena."

"It could be anyone," Mboko thought.

The message was from Serena Williams, arguably the greatest female tennis player of all time, and she was asking 19-year-old Mboko to be her doubles partner.

"How could I decline that?" Mboko said in an exclusive interview on Friday with CBC Sports host Anastasia Bucsis.

Mboko will be alongside Williams for the legend's much-anticipated return to competitive tennis at the HSBC Championships at The Queen's Club in West Kensington, London, next week. The women's doubles tournament begins on Monday, and the final is set for June 14.

‘She texted me': How Victoria Mboko became Serena Williams' doubles partner

It's the latest highlight in what has been an ascendant rise over the past year for Burlington, Ont.'s Mboko.

She was ranked 85th heading into the National Bank Open on home soil last summer, only to take down formerly top-ranked Naomi Osaka in the final to win the women's singles title.

Mboko is now the ninth-ranked woman in the world, and the top-ranked Canadian woman. Her star only continues to rise.

"I think I just keep on surprising myself every month," Mboko told Bucsis. "It’s just a lot of exciting things that keep happening."

Playing with Williams, who's won 23 Grand Slam singles titles and 14 Grand Slam doubles championships, will surely be a career highlight.

Mboko sees lots to learn from a player she's long considered an idol.

"I feel really honoured to be playing with someone of her calibre," she said. "I personally think she’s the greatest women’s athlete