Confident Mensik ready to defend his Miami title

 

MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. —  A year ago, Jakub Mensik was virtually unknown in America.

Two weeks and 111 aces later, the 6-foot-5 Czechian shocked the tennis world with a 7-6, 7-6 victory over his idol and six-time Miami Open champion Novak Djokovic to lift the beautiful Butch Buchholz trophy.

He became the fourth man in history to notch his first title in the Miami Open and the second youngest Miami champion at age 19 behind Carlos Alcaraz, who won in 2022 when he was 18.

Coming in at No. 54 in the rankings, Mensik becomes the lowest-ranked player to win this prestigious tournament.

And if not for the tournament doctor being on his lunch break, Mensik’s fairy tale adventure would never have occurred. He was struggling with knee pain and went to the referee’s office to sign the withdrawal papers. However, he wanted to meet with the doctor first.

He decided to tough it out and instead vanquished No. 7 Jack Draper, No. 18 Arthur Fils, No. 4 Taylor Fritz and No. 5 Djokovic, his mentor. In his on-court victory speech Mensik credited ATP physio Alejandro Resnicoff for fixing his knee.

Now 20, Mensik clearly didn’t want to harp on last year’s triumph at his roundtable media session in the posh Paddock ballroom in Hard Rock Stadium Tuesday evening. 

“Of course, last year was already last year,’’ Mensik said in his deep bass, perfect-for-radio voice. “I’m already looking for what is coming next for this week. 

“Yes, last year, it was an amazing experience, amazing result, and actually the breakthrough that probably came in my career. A lot of things changed at the time. After a year coming back here, of course, it’s giving me nice memories, a lot of goosebumps, and I’m really happy to be back here. 

“Even with the victory last year, I came back here where you could prepare feeling very well. So, I’m going to enjoy every moment on the court like last year.”

After his Miami win, Mensik signed the camera lens: “#1^st of many”

Another change in his life was the addition of Argentinian girlfriend Josefina Catino, who wrote on her Instagram after her boyfriend won at Auckland last month: “Second of many.”

The confident 20-year-old is working on meeting those lofty expectations and followed up Auckland with a win over world No. 2 Jannik Sinner in the quarterfinals of Doha before bowing to Frenchman Arthur Fils in the semis.

When asked if that victory gave him a jolt of confidence, Mensik, now world No. 13, sneered and said: “I have confidence all the time.”

That confidence may come in handy as Mensik is in Sinner’s quarter of the bracket and could meet the recent Indian Wells champion in the quarterfinals. But he also could have charismatic, hard-hitting American Frances Tiafoe and surging Canadian Felix Auger-Aliassime – who’s No. 8 – blocking his path.

Mensik, who has a habit of knocking off Top 10 players, is 9-9 in those matches.

Fritz, considered one of the top servers in the sport, lost 7-6, 4-6, 7-6 to Mensik in last year’s Miami semifinal without having his serve broken once. When Mensik aced him 25 times, Fritz remarked that Mensik’s “spot-serving was insane.”

Over the past 52 weeks, Mensik owns the fifth-best first-serve percentage on points won (78.3) with only Sinner, Fritz, Reilly Opelka and Alexander Bublik ahead of him. He is fourth in aces per match with 13 behind Opelka, Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard and Fritz.

Mensik swatted another question aside regarding his first defense of a title.

“I’m not trying to put any pressure on myself, even from the outside, about the media and the audience and everyone was talking about it,’’ he said. “I’m just trying to focus on myself. Of course, it’s something new, but something that I’m really excited for and something that I want to have in my career in the future.

“Last year’s final was a dream coming true … and a lot of things changed. Everyone who wants to be a top tennis player or actually to win these kind of big titles and go through to breakthroughs and compete against the best players in the world, they have to go through these kind of experiences. 

“So, I was just taking it as something that, not even a responsibility, but the thing that it’s really important for me, not just to be on the court and to play tennis … but at the end of the day, there is another weekend, another tournament, which you have to be ready for.” 

Mensik is ready.