“First of many,” Jakub Mensik wrote on the camera lens after his victory at the Miami Open on Sunday. The Czech had never won a tournament at ATP level before this week. Now he is a Masters 1000 champion.
On the other side of the net on a swelteringly humid night was a man he had idolised since his childhood, who had inspired him to take up tennis, who won his first title on the tour when Mensik was only 10 months old. As the 19-year-old collapsed on court, overwhelmed with emotion, it was hard not to think that the story had come full circle: the student had outgrown the master.
A tiring, ailing Novak Djokovic was overpowered in two tight tie-breaks, visibly struggling in the suffocating Florida heat and the worse off after a five-and-a-half-hour rain delay. More than that, though, Djokovic was – and is – in a losing battle against the one opponent he has always been able to put off: time.
Djokovic had not played in Miami since 2019. Like Serena Williams before him, the Serb contests a pared-down calendar, eliminating those smaller tournaments he does not feel are worthwhile as he aims to peak for the right moments. He had made the decision to come here – as he decides ahead of every tournament – because he felt it was worth it; felt he could win.
Enter Mensik. Part of a fleet of young talent breaking through in the men’s ranks, the 54th-ranked Czech was part of December’s NextGen Finals, a slightly gimmicky eight-player tournament that nonetheless has some significance because of its habit of producing stars of the future. Recent winners include Stefanos Tsitsipas (2018), Jannik Sinner (2019), and Carlos Alcaraz (2021). Daniil Medvedev, Alex de Minaur, Denis Shapovalov, Taylor Fritz, and Holger Rune are among a litany of other major names to take part.
Mensik had a forgettable tournament in Jeddah, losing all of his round-robin matches, and much of the attention since then has been on other alumni, mostly 18-year-old champion Joao Fonseca. The Czech broke through at roughly the same time as Fonseca – he reached the Qatar Open final last year in the same week as the Brazilian’s memorable run to the quarter-finals in Rio – but has not been accompanied by the same barrage of hype. That’s unlikely to remain the case now that he has the advantage of a Masters title over Fonseca. But it has meant that he has been afforded the luxury of steadily making his way up the rankings, honing his game, killing giants and so on, without scrutiny on his every move.
In Miami his huge serve, booming groundstrokes, and incredible movement and court coverage for a man of 6’4” were all on show, with the teenager bombing down aces and lasering his powerful backhand to immense effect. His improving game saw him topple top 10 players Jack Draper and Taylor Fritz on his way to the final. Then he needed not just his game to hold up, but his mind.
The man on the other side of the net had other problems. One of Djokovic’s several superpowers – an ability to coast through the early rounds of a tournament, then switch on his brilliant best when the going gets tougher – seems to be deserting him. But most significantly, the psychological hold he has over the rest of the tour has gone.
Mensik, with his well-documented admiration of Djokovic growing up, was a prime candidate to be starstruck when play finally got underway on Sunday. The inevitable jitters were no doubt compounded by the lengthy wait to come on court. Instead, he thrived, holding his nerve in two tight sets to comprehensively win in the most nerve-jangling format of all, the tiebreak.
As he fell to the ground after his victory, another leaf turned over in the story of the sport. The likes of Mensik, Fonseca, Americans Learner Tien and Alex Michelsen, and more, have announced their arrival. Each has a very different personality and game style, but each has an unashamed self-belief missing from some of the sport’s forgotten generation, the likes of Tsitsipas, Ruud and Rublev, and different even from the quiet confidence of Sinner or the exhibition-style virtuosity of Alcaraz.
There has been a shift in attitude, from deference towards one of the sport’s greats, to an utter confidence in their place at the top table. Djokovic remains a formidable athlete and a tough draw in any tournament. But he is beatable, and they all know it.
That elusive 100th ATP title, one of the few records he has left to chase, still eludes him. It now feels further out of reach. The tide is turning. Mensik’s triumph in Miami will not be the last instance of a young, dazzling talent beating the sport’s colossus. As he wrote on the camera lens, it’s the first of many.