Czech teen Jakub Mensik notched his first ATP Tour title in memorable fashion, shocking former world No. 1 Novak Djokovic 7-6 (4), 7-6 (4) on Sunday night in the final of the Miami Open.
Mensik, 19, overcame a nearly six-hour rain delay, denying the Serbian star his 100th tournament title and becoming the second-youngest player to win the event behind Carlos Alcaraz, who was 18 when he won in 2022.
“To be honest, I don’t know what to say. It feels incredible, obviously,” Mensik said in his on-court interview. “It was probably the biggest day of my life and I did super, which I’m really glad (about), to show the performance and keep the nerves outside of the court before the match. I feel just super happy, and I think that the feelings will come later.”
Djokovic, 37, who was seeking his seventh Miami title, was already in the ATP Top 100 rankings in 2005, the year Mensik was born. Djokovic, who defeated Mensik last year in the Shanghai quarterfinals in their only previous matchup, heaped praise on his young opponent in Miami.
“This is Jakub’s moment — moment of his team, moment of his family. Congratulations, unbelievable tournament,” Djokovic said. “It hurts me to admit it, but you were better! In the clutch moments, you delivered the goods (with) unbelievable serving and just a phenomenal effort mentally as well to stay tough in a difficult moment.”
The 24-time Grand Slam champion was dealing with an apparent right eye issue that seemed to hamper him throughout the match. He put in eye drops during changeovers and was seen reaching toward the eye.
Meanwhile, Mensik — in his first ATP Masters 1000 final — was coming off a semifinal win over No. 4 seed Taylor Fritz and rode that momentum into a 3-0 lead in the opening set.
Djokovic knotted the first set at 4-all and bounced back from being down 4-5 and 5-6 to force a tiebreaker. However, Mensik took control early, grabbing a 5-0 lead and forcing Djokovic into mistakes. The 40-time ATP Masters 1000 champion pulled to within 6-4, but the rising young Czech, ranked No. 54 entering the tournament, closed out the set with an overhead smash.
In the second set, Djokovic rebounded to keep the pressure on, but the Czech never let up with his serve as he won 77 percent of his first-serve points in the match, per Infosys ATP stats. He also collected 14 aces to just seven for Djokovic, and compiled seven more winners — 29 to 22.
“It was not the first time I’ve played against Novak,” Mensik said. “There is no harder task in tennis than to beat him in the finals. But of course I felt really great and it’s my time, so I just tried to focus on the match like I did before in previous rounds.”
Menisk will rise to a career-best No. 24 in Monday’s ATP rankings, two years after he was ranked 390th in the world.
He also became the first Czech player to win an ATP Masters 1000 event since Tomas Berdych prevailed in 2005 in Paris.
–Field Level Media
