2 Responses to miami25mensik_djokovic

1. Voo de Mar says:

   March 31, 2025 at 1:06 pm

   Points won by each set: | 35-36, 41-40 |
   Points won directly behind the serve:
   41 % Mensik – 32 of 78
   28 % Djokovic – 21 of 74

   # Pretty special final at this level: the biggest age difference (18, the previous record – 16 in Montreal ’05), Djokovic [5] could celebrate his 100th title while Mensik [54] could become just the 4th man to win his maiden title in those circumstances. The Czech teenager wasn’t intimidated at all, last year he lost to Djokovic 7-6, 1-6, 4-6 in Shanghai not possessing such a lethal serve like nowadays. That Chinese meeting a few months ago, it was a solid base for the underdog to establish a 3:0* lead. The Serb broke back at 2:4, but he was struggling with reading Mensik’s serve (not only power, but variety too). The most important point of the tie-break occurred at 1:0 for the youngster. He played his backhand return aggressively, the net-cord helped him to have a better position, but he finished the point with an impressive backhand overhead. In the 2nd set he wasted two break points at 2-all, on his serve he wasn’t threatened. In the second tie-break Djokovic didn’t look fresh enough after demanding rallies, he saved the first match point with a quite lucky return which landed on the baseline, but on the second match point he couldn’t control Mensik’s out-wide serve. The man from Prostejov celebrated the success of his life lying with his face on the ground. “It was not the first time I’ve played against Novak,” said Mensik, “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.” He’s the first Czech with such an important title since Berdych triumphed at Paris-Bercy 2005. It seems that Mensik has all the tools in his box to achieve more than Berdych and Korda… too early to predict whether he’d be at least at Lendl’s level given the modern history of Czech tennis.

   Mensik’s route to his maiden title (24th main-level event):
   1 Roberto Bautista Agut 6-4, 3-6, 6-1
   2 Jack Draper 7-6(2), 7-6(3)
   3 Roman Safiulin 6-4, 6-4
   4 Tomas Machac w/o
   Q Arthur Fils 7-6(5), 6-1
   S Taylor Fritz 7-6(4), 4-6, 7-6(4)
   W Novak Djokovic 7-6(4), 7-6(4)

   Serve & volley: Mensik 1/1, Djokovic 0

   # Mensik three points away from losing to Fritz (*3:4 in the deciding TB)

   Log in to Reply
2. Voo de Mar says:

   March 31, 2025 at 4:07 pm

   # Four Masters 1K (Mercedes Super 9) champions without a main-level title before:

   1996 – Carretero (Hamburg)
   1997 – Woodruff (Montreal)
   2001 – Portas (Hamburg)
   2025 – Mensik (Miami)

   Log in to Reply