Novak Djokovic lost Sunday night’s Miami Open final against Jakub Mensik 7-6(4), 7-6(4), but it wasn’t because the 24-time Grand Slam champion was taken by surprise. He had already been aware of Mensik’s talent for a while.
Djokovic first became aware of Mensik during the 2022 Australian Open junior boys championship match, which the Czech lost 7-6(4), 6-7(6), 7-5 in three hours and 43 minutes against Bruno Kuzuhara . Mensik was cramping and had to be taken off the court in a wheelchair when it ended.
Later that season, Djokovic invited Mensik to Belgrade, Serbia for training.
“I loved the fighting spirit when he was down in that finals I saw in Australia,” the 37-year-old said at his post-match press conference following the Miami final. “And obviously (he had a) big game. Seemed like a nice guy, Eastern European. I gave a call through my management, his management, and we found a connection. He accepted to come.
“We had three training blocks together. And actually, his physio who is with him now was my physio, Serbian guy. There is a lot of connecting things that we have in common.”
Almost nothing–nothing other than an 18-year age difference, at least–has separated them in their two previous encounters. Djokovic won a competitive three-set contest at the 2024 Shanghai Masters 1000 prior to Mensik’s two-tiebreaker win in Miami. Those results have left Djokovic even more impressed with Mensik than he was a few years ago.
“To see his development and evolution is really great–amazing,” Djokovic said of the 19-year-old. “I could see back then already that he’s going to be one of the top players of the world. I’m super glad that he’s using the potential that he has, because he’s got the complete game. Obviously his serve is incredible, powerful, precise, wins a lot of free points with the first serve. Backhand, as well…. Czech school–they always have a great backhand. But forehand, he’s improved a lot. And movement for a tall, big guy like that, he slides and moves well.
“He still can improve, of course. So I’m sure we’ll be seeing him around.”
Ricky contributes to 10sballs.com and also maintains his own tennis website, The Grandstand. You can follow him on Twitter at @Dimonator.