At this year's Miami Open, 19 year old Jakub Mensik out of the Czech Republic defeated his idol Novak Djokovic 7-6, 7-6 in the final to win his first career ATP Tour title. As a result, Mensik has now climbed to No. 23 in the world. Going into the tournament, Mensik was ranked No. 54 in the world, making him the lowest ranked player to ever win the Miami Open.
MATCH STATS: Jakub Mensik vs. Novak Djokovic-March 30th, Miami Open
When looking at the stats from the match, what really stands out is the fact that Mensik was able to perform slightly better on his serve than Djokovic. Mensik had a serve rating of 302 while Djokovic had serve rating of 300. Both guys won 77% of their first serves though Djokovic (76%) had a higher percentage than Mensik (67%). However, Mensik (54%) won more of his second serves than Djokovic (50%) while also out-acing Djokovic 14-7. In a match that goes to a tiebreaker in each set, whichever guy does better on their serve will have an edge.
Mensik's best grand slam performances have been at the Australian Open (2025) and the US Open (2023 & 2024) in which he reached the 3rd round. He's obviously starting to find his footing and get more comfortable playing on the biggest stages the sport has to offer. To win his first career title at an ATP 1000 event is big time. It's a kind of amazing he doesn't have an ATP 500 or ATP 250 title under his belt, but if he's going to pick a place to win his first title, the Miami Open isn't a bad place to do it at all.
What will be interesting to see is whether or not Mensik is able to build on this title and make more noise at the grand slams later this year. He's never played the French Open, so it's hard to know how well he'll play there, though Czech players are often solid on the clay. And then at Wimbledon he has a 1st round exit in 2024. If he is going to break through to reach the 4th round or quarterfinals at a grand slam, the US Open and Australian Open seem like the most likely places for that to happen given they are played on hard court. That said, he seemed to kinda come out of nowhere to win the Miami Open, so who knows what he'll do on the clay or grass later this year.
Regardless, I think it's safe to say that Jakub Mensik has put himself on the map with his Miami Open title. He's just 19 years old and every year is getting better. It'll be fun to see where his career goes from here and whether or not this is the first of many big titles that he wins.
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