“First of all,” Jakub Mensik wrote on the camera goal after his victory at Miami Open Sunday. The Czech had never won a tournament in ATP level before this week. Now he is Masters 1000 champion.
On the other side of the net during a wealthy night, there was a man whom he had idolized since his childhood, who had inspired him to take tennis, who won his first title on the tour while Mensik was only 10 months old. While the 19 -year -old collapsed on the ground, overwhelmed with emotion, it was difficult not to think that the story had completed the loop: the student had passed the master.
A tiring, despite Novak Djokovic was overpowered in two tight shooting broomIn difficulty visibly in the sweltering heat of Florida and the worst after a tidel of rain of five and a half hours. More than that, however, Djokovic was – and is – in a lost battle against the only opponent he has always been able to repel: time.
Djokovic had not played Miami since 2019. Like Serena Williams Before him, the Serbian disputes a sleek calendar, eliminating the small tournaments which he does not judge valid because he aims to culminate for the good times. He had made the decision to come here – when he decides before each tournament – because he thought it was worth it; I felt he could win.
Enter Mensik. Being part of a fleet of young talents in the male ranks, the 54th classified Czech was part of the December Nextgen final, a tournament with eight slightly gadget players which nevertheless has a certain meaning because of its habit of producing stars of the future. Recent winners include Stefanos Tsisipas (2018), Jannik sinner (2019), and Carlos Alcaraz (2021). Daniil Medvedev,, Alex de Minaur,, Denis Shapovalov,, Taylor FritzAnd Holger Rune Among a litany are other major names to participate.
Mensik had a forgetable tournament in Jeddah, losing all of his round games, and a large part of the attention since then was on other alumni, mainly 18 -year -old champion Joao Fonseca. The Czech broke about at the same time as Fonseca – he reached the Open Qatar The final of last year during the same week as the Memorable Brazilian race in the quarterfinals of Rio – but was not accompanied by the same threshing media dam. It is unlikely that this remains the case now that it has the advantage of a masters title on Fonseca. But that said that he received the luxury of going up regularly in the ranking, to perfect his game, to kill the giants and so on, without examination of each of his movements.
In Miami, his huge service, his booming base blows and incredible movements and his legal coverage for a 6’4 ”man were all exposed, the teenager bombing the AS and stirring his powerful setbacks with a huge effect. Jack draper And Taylor Fritz en route to the final. Then he needed not only his game to hold on, but also his mind.
The man on the other side of the net had other problems. One of the many superpowers of Djokovic – a closing capacity at the start of the first tournaments, then to the activation of its best when the turn becomes more difficult – seems to desert it. But above all, the psychological taking he has on the rest of the tour has disappeared.
Mensik, with his well -documented admiration of Djokovic as a growing, was a main candidate to be Starstruck when the game finally started on Sunday. The inevitable assaults were undoubtedly aggravated by the long waiting to come to the court. Instead, he prospered, holding his nerve in two tight sets to gain in -depth in the most nervous format of all, the break in equality.
As he fell to the ground after his victory, another sheet turned into the history of sport. The tastes of Mensik, Fonseca, American Learning yours And Alex Michelsen, and more, announced their arrival. Everyone has a very different personality and style of play, but everyone has self -confidence without missing shame in a part of the forgotten generation of sport, such as Tsisipas, Ruud and Rublev, and different even from the quiet confidence of the sinner or the virtuosity of style exhibition of Alcaraz.
There was a change in attitude, from deference to one of the great of sport to total confidence in their place at the upper table. Djokovic remains a formidable athlete and a difficult draw in any tournament. But he is benchmark, and they all know it.
This 100th eligible ATP title, one of the rare records that he has left to continue, always escapes him. He now feels more out of reach. The tide turns. The triumph of Mensik in Miami will not be the last example of a dazzling young talent beating the colossus of sport. As he wrote on the lens of the camera, it is the first of many.
