Czech teenager Jakub Mensik grew up idolizing Novak Djokovic. On Sunday in Miami, after a more than five-and-a-half hour rain delay, the 19-year-old from Prostejov denied his hero a milestone victory with one of his own.
With a 7-6(4), 7-6(4) win in the final of the Miami Open, Mensik captured his first career ATP singles title at any level, and stopped Djokovic from joining the exclusive club of men who’ve won 100 or more singles titles in tennis history, which currently is made up of only Jimmy Connors and Roger Federer.
The 6-foot-4 right-hander, born 20 years ago while Djokovic was in the midst of making his US Open debut, is the first man from his nation to win a Masters 1000 title since Tomas Berdych in 2005, and handed the Serb just his second career defeat in Miami in the quarterfinals or beyond.
“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.”
“There is no harder task in tennis than to beat him in the finals,” Mensik continued. “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.”
