And it was shown again on Friday, as he overcame a challenging schedule \u2013 and two quality opponents \u2013 to power into the final. After Thursday\u2019s constant rain, his quarter-final was shifted to an 11am start on Friday. He steamrolled big-serving Frenchman Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard 6-4 6-2, then was back on court in the early afternoon, prevailing 7-6 (9) 4-6 6-1 over solid Hungarian Fabian Marozsan, in a match that stretched across 2h7m.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was very difficult,\u201d said Mensik. \u201cNot many times on the ATP Tour are you playing two matches in one day. And actually, it was one match, then two hours break and then the other one.\u201d<\/p>\n
Given he was a top-four seed, Mensik has had a challenging road. His first match on Wednesday didn\u2019t finish until close to midnight, after a delayed start then a 2h14m three-setter. He then spent most of Thursday waiting in the players\u2019 lounge, with several false dawns.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou are waiting the whole day, you know, \u2018Am I going to play or not\u2019,\u201d said Mensik. \u201cLike every 30 minutes it was changing, raining, not raining, so it was physically and mentally very difficult.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mensik didn\u2019t leave till after 10pm \u2013 then was back at 8am on Friday \u2013 \u201cit was hard to get a good recovery overnight\u201d \u2013 but he made light of the situation, blasting Perricard off the court with five breaks of his massive serve.<\/p>\n
The semi-final was much closer, given Marozsan had been in top form, shown with his wins over Monfils and second seed Casper Ruud. A turning point came in the first set tiebreaker. At 3-6 down, Mensik saved three set points, although he admitted he got a \u201cbit lucky \u201c on one, as his framed shot landed in. He defied another set point at 6-7, before nailing his own at 10-9.<\/p>\n
\u201cI believed, even if I was 3-6 down,\u201d said Mensik.<\/p>\n
The second bracket had more twists, as Marozsan retrieved an early deficit to level the match. But Mensik wouldn\u2019t be denied, lifting again in the final set, before a 219km\/h serve sealed match point.<\/p>\n
Mensik characterised the day as perfect preparation for the upcoming Australian Open \u2013 \u201cI played five sets today\u201d \u2013 and enjoys the unique atmosphere here, with spectators eating and drinking in courtside boxes, a rare sight on the tour.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s like playing in the middle of a restaurant,\u201d he joked in his post-match interview on Sky.<\/p>\n
ASB Classic finalist Sebastian Baez. Photo \/ Photosport<\/p>\n
Mensik will face Sebastian Baez in Saturday\u2019s final, after the Argentine continued his hot streak to start 2026. The world No 39 had a 3-0 record in the United Cup last week and has scorched through the field here. <\/p>\n
On Friday, he upset world No 8 Ben Shelton in the quarter-finals \u2013 7-5 6-3 \u2013 for only the third top-10 win of his career, from 21 attempts. Baez was too consistent and too fast, constantly forcing Shelton to play another shot and putting pressure on the American\u2019s serve.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe outplayed me, as simple as that,\u201d said Shelton. \u201cIt was a bad serving performance from me. To get broken five times on a hard court in two sets … I just wasn\u2019t hitting my spots the way that I needed to against someone as solid as him.\u201d<\/p>\n
In the semi-final, Baez was too strong for American Marcos Giron, prevailing 6-1 6-4 in 1h27m. The 25-year-old will feature in his 12th final on Saturday, with Mensik in his third. They have never faced each other at tour level.<\/p>\n
Michael Burgess<\/a> has been a sports journalist for the New Zealand Herald since 2005, covering the Olympics, Fifa World Cups, and America\u2019s Cup campaigns. He is a co-host of the Big League podcast<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"And it was shown again on Friday, as he overcame a challenging schedule \u2013 and two quality opponents…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":236216,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[2246,25286,32810,51,4915,83487,5904,22403,1861,139630,5338,139631,111,139,69,139632,13608,8145,8258,20843,213,61,102],"class_list":["post-236215","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-2246","tag-asb","tag-atp","tag-auckland","tag-classic","tag-czech","tag-final","tag-grabbed","tag-history","tag-jakub","tag-makes","tag-mensik","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-quarterfinalthird","tag-reaching","tag-run","tag-seed","tag-slice","tag-sports","tag-to","tag-with"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/236215","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=236215"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/236215\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/236216"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=236215"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=236215"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=236215"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}