He would then survive the experienced Andrey Rublev in five sets to reach his first major quarterfinal, where he faced the surging Joao Fonseca.
Mensik was in all sorts of trouble again in the third set, before finally seeing off his fellow rising star.
“The last, I mean, 20, 30 minutes of the match, it was just really insane the level from both of us,” said Mensik, who again needed seven match points after earlier saving a set point.
“Even after those match points when I didn’t manage to take them, when I was 6-5 up, I’m happy that… I stayed mentally focused and calm and managed to level up my game in the tiebreak and be the one who managed to take it.”
This is by far Mensik’s best Grand Slam result, one that propels him from 27th to 16th in the ATP live rankings.
And it continues a theme of overcoming adversity in 2026, which began at the Australian Open.
At Melbourne Park, after progressing to the second week of a major for the first time, Mensik was due to face idol Novak Djokovic – whom he’d beaten in the 2025 Miami Open final for his first ATP Masters crown – yet had to withdraw ahead of the match due to an abdominal injury.
The following month, he rose to a career-high ranking of No.12, but dropped sharply after exiting early in Miami, unable to defend the hefty batch of points he’d earned 12 months earlier.
And Mensik didn’t play again until Madrid, with a toe infection and a viral illness sidelining him in the early stages of the claycourt season.