{"id":549405,"date":"2026-03-20T17:18:08","date_gmt":"2026-03-20T17:18:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/549405\/"},"modified":"2026-03-20T17:18:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-20T17:18:08","slug":"jakub-mensik-loses-the-spotlight-to-lionel-messi-on-miami-date-night-atp-tour","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/549405\/","title":{"rendered":"Jakub Mensik loses the spotlight to Lionel Messi on Miami date night | ATP Tour"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>        Off Court News<br \/>\n    Mensik loses the spotlight to Lionel Messi on Miami date night<\/p>\n<p>Even a rising ATP Tour star can&#8217;t compete with Messi&#8217;s magic, Mensik jokes<\/p>\n<p>March 20, 2026<\/p>\n<p>            <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/mensik-messi-miami-2026-friday.jpg\" alt=\"Jakub Mensik attended an Inter Miami match on Wednesday, featuring Lionel Messi. \"\/><\/p>\n<p>Francois Nel \/ Leonardo Fernandez \/ Getty Images<\/p>\n<p>        Jakub Mensik attended an Inter Miami match on Wednesday, featuring Lionel Messi.<br \/>\n        By Jerome Coombe<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.atptour.com\/en\/players\/jakub-mensik\/m0ni\/overview\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Jakub Mensik<\/a> might be one of the ATP Tour\u2019s rising stars, but even he knows when he\u2019s been upstaged.<\/p>\n<p>The 20-year-old Czech, who is defending champion at this week\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.atptour.com\/en\/tournaments\/miami\/403\/overview\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Miami Open presented by Itau<\/a>, traded centre court for the stands on Wednesday, when he took in an Inter Miami match alongside his girlfriend Josefina.<\/p>\n<p>As it turns out, competing for attention in a stadium featuring record eight-time Ballon d\u2019Or winner Lionel Messi is a losing battle.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDate idea: compete with Messi for attention (0\/10 would not recomend),\u201d <a rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/p\/DWFa2G3kXML\/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&amp;igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==\" target=\"_blank\">Mensik joked on Instagram<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Mensik\u2019s joke is relatable, but it also strikes a chord because the World No. 13 himself has already had his own unforgettable Messi moment. After stunning <a href=\"https:\/\/www.atptour.com\/en\/players\/novak-djokovic\/d643\/overview\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Novak Djokovic<\/a> to win the ATP Masters 1000 title in Miami last year, Mensik fulfilled a \u201cchildhood dream\u201d by meeting the Argentine icon.<\/p>\n<p>Back on court, Mensik\u2019s has continued to build serious momentum across the first three months of 2026. He won the title in Auckland in January and has surged to ninth in the PIF ATP Live Race To Turin, putting himself firmly in the conversation for a debut appearance at the season-ending <a href=\"https:\/\/www.atptour.com\/en\/tournaments\/nitto-atp-finals\/605\/overview\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Nitto ATP Finals<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Before he can start thinking about Turin, however, there is work to be done in South Florida. Mensik will open his Miami title defence against <a href=\"https:\/\/www.atptour.com\/en\/players\/sebastian-baez\/b0bi\/overview\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Sebastian Baez<\/a> or <a href=\"https:\/\/www.atptour.com\/en\/players\/adam-walton\/w09e\/overview\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Adam Walton<\/a> and, while Messi may have stolen the spotlight for a night, the Czech will be hoping to make sure all eyes are back on him this week.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/www.instagram.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Off Court News Mensik loses the spotlight to Lionel Messi on Miami date night Even a rising ATP&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":549406,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[442],"tags":[49,48,82,593],"class_list":["post-549405","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-sports","tag-tennis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/549405","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=549405"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/549405\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/549406"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=549405"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=549405"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=549405"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}