Novak Djokovic: Serbishly denied 100th ATP title by teen Jakub Mensik in Miami Open Final | Tennis news

Novak Djokovic fell short in his attempt to claim a 100th ATP title after a straight sets defeat of the Czech teen Jakub Mensik in the Miami Open Final.

Djokovic wanted to become a member of Jimmy Connors (109) and Roger Federer (103) as the only three men in the professional era with 100 or more titles, but the 37-year-old crashed on a shock 7-6 (7-4) 7-6 (7-4) defeat after a few hours of rain refunds on Sunday.

The 19-year-old Czech won his first ATP Masters 1000-final and became the second-jongest Miami champion behind Carlos Alcaraz, who won in 2022 as an 18-year-old.

The defeat leaves Djokovic, who seemed to struggle with a matter under his right eye, without a title on tour since the ATP final in 2023. His only success in 2024 came to the Olympic Games.

“There is no more difficult task in tennis than to beat him in the final,” said Mensik, who lost his only earlier meeting with Djokovic in Shanghai.

“You are the one I love when I was young. I started playing tennis because of you.

“But of course I felt really great, and it's my time, so I just tried to concentrate on the game as I did earlier in earlier rounds.”

Mensik, who defeated World No 4 Taylor Fritz in the semi-final and the Indian Wells champion Jack Draper in an earlier round, broke the six-time Miami champion in his opening service match.

Djokovic was leveled when he seized the only breaking point that Mensik encountered in the match, but struggled on his return and lost the first five points of the Tie-Break opening set.

He gathered before he went down with 7-4 and while he found some rhythm from the back of the field, he could not go into the Mensik Serve and the teenager completed the victory in another tie-break in the second set.

Djokovic calls it 'a strange day'

Djokovic admitted that his opponent – 18 years his junior – was better and congratulated him on an “incredible tournament”.

“This is the moment of Jakub – moment of his team, moment of his family. Congratulations, incredible tournament,” said Djokovic.

“It hurts me to admit it, but you were better! In the clutch moments you delivered the goods. Incredible portion and only a phenomenal effort mentally, to stay hard at a difficult moment.”

Djokovic called it “a strange day” and said that he “really prefers it not to talk about” his eye, but added: “I didn't feel my biggest on the field.”

“I am never really happy to lose, but he is one of the few players that I would be happier to lose, to be honest,” Djokovic told reporters. “I saw him play when he was 15 or 16 and invited him. We had some training blocks together. He trained in my club in Belgrade (in 2022) and to see his development and evolution is really great, great.

“I could already see that he will be one of the top players in the world. I am super happy that he uses the potential he has because he has the complete game.”

“His serve is incredible, powerful, accurate and he wins many free points with the first serve,” added 24-way Grand Slam champion Djokovic.

“Backhand too. Czech school, they always have a great backhand. But Forehand, he has improved a lot. And movement for a long, big guy who, he slides and moves well.

“Of course he can still improve, so I'm sure we'll see him in the neighborhood.

“It's a shame for me. Two tie-breaks, weird match, weird day with the rain delay and all the things that happened. I didn't feel my biggest on the field, but it is what it is. Nothing to take away his victory.”

Mensik close to the withdrawal of Miami

The Czech teenager revealed that he had almost pulled himself out of the tournament because of inflammation in his right knee.

Shortly before his opener against Roberto Bautista Agut, the 19-year-old was on his way to the referee's room to announce his withdrawal, but discovered that the civil servant was out for lunch, and he visited the Fysio's room instead.

“It was just a great inflammation. I couldn't walk, I couldn't run,” Mensik told reporters. “I started to treat it, started taking painkillers. Nothing helped. During MatchDay it was the same … I tried to get on the treadmill. I couldn't move. I thought:” Okay, that's it. I pull it out. “

“I was visiting the referee's office to say,” Guys, I pull back, “but he lunch. So okay, let's visit the physio first. I was there and I said,” Hey, my knee hurts. Just fill the paper. I go. “

Mensik said the physio worked on his knee and thought it wasn't a serious problem.

“I had something like that:” Okay, let's try again. I got on the treadmill and it was the same. But I was about the pain. I suffered at those moments, “Mensik added.

“After a few minutes I started to feel a little relief. I took several painkillers, which helped a bit. I thought:” Okay, let's try. It's 30 minutes before the game. I can walk. I can run. Let's look. “

“Somehow I won the first round and actually I had a day off, which of course was much better for my knee. Day after day the knee got better and that also made my game.”

Menisk will rise to a career-best no. 24 in the ranking of Monday, two years after he was in 390th place in the world.

He also became the first Czech player to win an ATP Masters 1000 event since Tomas Berdych had the upper hand in Paris in 2005.

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