Jakub Mensik overcame rain and an opponent chasing history Sunday when he stunned six-time Miami champion Novak Djokovic 7-6(4), 7-6(4) for the Miami Open presented by Itau trophy.
The 19-year-old Czech Republic player become the second-youngest titlist in tournament history behind Carlos Alcaraz, who lifted the trophy in 2022 as an 18-year-old.
“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.”
The match was delayed nearly six hours by rain in Florida, giving the teen plenty of time to think about the task at hand, which was trying to stop Djokovic from claiming the 100th tour-level title of his career. But Mensik, who was born in September 2005, when Djokovic was already in the Top 100 of the PIF ATP Rankings, did not shrink in the moment.
Instead, the Czech rose to the occasion to play the match of his life, producing a scintillating serving performance to become the first player from his country to win an ATP Masters 1000 event since Tomas Berdych triumphed in Paris in 2005.
“It was not the first time I’ve played against Novak,” said Mensik, who lost his first Lexus ATP Head2Head meeting against his idol Djokovic last year in the Shanghai quarter-finals. “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.”
With the victory, Mensik will climb to a career-high No. 24 in the PIF ATP Rankings on Monday, passing Jiri Lehecka to become the second-ranked Czech player behind No. 21 Tomas Machac. Two years ago, Mensik was World No. 390.
The Prostejov native, who explained after the final that he nearly withdrew from the tournament before it began due to knee inflammation, is just the fifth teen to defeat Djokovic on the ATP Tour. Mensik joined Filip Krajinovic (2010 Belgrade, retired after first set), Alcaraz (2022 Madrid), Holger Rune (2022 Paris-Bercy) and Stefanos Tsitsipas (2018 Toronto) by achieving the feat.
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