{"id":490461,"date":"2026-03-23T06:22:10","date_gmt":"2026-03-23T06:22:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/490461\/"},"modified":"2026-03-23T06:22:10","modified_gmt":"2026-03-23T06:22:10","slug":"djokovic-protege-who-could-disrupt-sincaraz-duopoly","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/490461\/","title":{"rendered":"Djokovic prot\u00e9g\u00e9 who could disrupt \u2018Sincaraz\u2019 duopoly"},"content":{"rendered":"

Attempts to overthrow the duopoly at the top of men\u2019s tennis have thus far proved a Sisyphean task.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Jo\u00e3o Fonseca is the most popular candidate, thousands of febrile Brazilian fans having flooded into the Hard Rock Stadium to watch him take on Carlos Alcaraz in the second round of the Miami Open on Friday. The 19-year-old lost in straight sets, just as he did \u2014 albeit far more narrowly \u2014 against Jannik Sinner in Indian Wells, but clearly has the tools to be a destructive force.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Before him, Jack Draper, Ben Shelton and Arthur Fils were among those touted as credible threats only to be thwarted by a combination of injuries and inconsistent form. However, it is perhaps the player who has drawn by far the least celebrity \u2014 at least going by social media following \u2014 who could be the first to reach the summit.<\/p>\n

Jakub Mensik was only 19 years old when he clinched the first Masters title of his career here in Miami last year \u2014 a run that included victories against Draper, Fils, Taylor Fritz and then his hero and mentor, Novak Djokovic, in a tense and emotional final after a near six-hour rain delay. What made the breakthrough even more impressive was that Mensik had actually attempted to withdraw from the tournament on the eve of his first-round match owing to a knee injury that left him barely able to walk before a physio persuaded him he could persevere through the pain.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was different for me playing Novak than against other opponents because he\u2019s my idol. It made it more special. During the rain delay I was just trying not to freak out, basically,\u201d Mensik says. \u201cAfter the last point it was just pure happiness that came out of me. Novak is a great guy, like a true champion. After the match it basically felt the same as the first day that we met.\u201d<\/p>\n

Alcaraz and Sinner are the two totems \u2014 although the latter suffered a shock defeat in the third round on Sunday night, world No36 Sebastian Korda becoming the lowest-ranked player to beat the Spaniard in the past year.<\/p>\n

Mensik has yet to play Alcaraz, and beat Sinner in their first meeting in Qatar last month \u2014 but the world No13\u2019s story is bound indelibly to Djokovic. Born in Prostejov, a city of about 50,000 in the east of the Czech Republic, Mensik\u2019s father was an ice hockey player in his youth, but he quickly gravitated towards tennis like so many children in the country; notably seven of the present top 50 players on the WTA Tour are Czech. \u201cIf there was a football pitch in front of my house, I would probably be a football player. When I was five years old I just came into tennis. It was the first thing I saw and I grabbed it and the rest is history,\u201d Mensik says.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"JakubMensik has served further notice of his potential by claiming Sinner\u2019s scalp this yearFrancois Nel\/Getty<\/p>\n

Jiri Lehecka, the men\u2019s world No22, trains at the same club as Mensik and serves as both a role model and practice partner. But after Mensik, aged 16, lost in the final of the Australian Open boys\u2019 singles in 2022, collapsing with full body cramps after an extraordinary 3hr 43min match, it was Djokovic who contacted him out of the blue and invited him to a training camp in Belgrade. \u201cIn interviews there, when I was asked who my idol was, I always said Novak and he must have noticed it,\u201d Mensik says. \u201cI received a video message from him congratulating me and he invited me to his place. <\/p>\n

\u201cI had dreamt of one day meeting him and maybe taking a picture, so to practise with him and go for lunches and dinners, it was just different. It was an experience that I could never find practising [at a tournament], looking at everything he does on and off the court, all the small details to try and implement in my game.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"NovakDjokovic says Mensik has the \u201ccomplete game\u201d, having experienced its pulverising force at the Hard Rock Stadium Geoff Burke\/Reuters<\/p>\n

Armed with a huge serve and backhand, Mensik was already on a sharp trajectory \u2014 he peaked at No2 in the junior world rankings \u2014 but Djokovic\u2019s teaching paid dividends, particularly when it came to fitness and adjusting to the rigours of life on tour. He won his first Challenger title aged 17 in 2023 and then defeated top seed Andrey Rublev en route to the final of the Qatar Open at the start of the following year \u2014 a run that made him the youngest player ranked inside the top 100. He reached the third round of the US Open later that year before coming up against Djokovic for the first time in the quarter-finals of the Shanghai Masters. <\/p>\n

\u201cTwo years before I was playing practice sets with him losing 6-1 and didn\u2019t have a chance because I was a junior,\u201d Mensik says. \u201cOf course I lost, but a year later I had another opportunity. In Shanghai it was such a nice experience and I went there to enjoy it. [In Miami] I went there to beat him.\u201d<\/p>\n

After the interminable delays that meant the final did not start until nearly 9pm local time, Mensik produced a spectacular serving display, ceding only one break point all match as he edged both tie-breaks to win in straight sets and briefly deny Djokovic his 100th ATP Tour-level title. <\/p>\n

\"JakubThe 6ft 5in Czech plans to \u201ctake over from the previous generation\u201dDebby Wong\/ZUMA\/Shutterstock Editorial<\/p>\n

Djokovic said: \u201cI\u2019m never really happy to lose, but he\u2019s one of the very few players that I would be happier to lose to, to be honest \u2026 to see his development and evolution is really great, amazing. I could see back then already \u2014 three, four years ago \u2014 that he\u2019s going to be one of the top players of the world. I\u2019m super-glad that he\u2019s using the potential that he has, because he\u2019s got the complete game.\u201d<\/p>\n

Maintaining that momentum did not prove easy as the schedule took its toll and Mensik suffered surprising second-round exits at both the French and US Opens. He started this season in better form, though, winning his second ATP Tour title at the Auckland Open in January, but was then forced to withdraw before his fourth-round match at the Australian Open because of an abdominal injury. His scheduled opponent: Djokovic. <\/p>\n

But a hard-fought victory over Sinner last month was further evidence Mensik will continue to stake his own claim, even if a virus troubled him during his 3-6, 6-2, 6-4 victory over Adam Walton in the second round in Miami on Saturday. \u201cThe goal for me now is to try and stay healthy because last year you could see a lot of players struggling with injuries,\u201d he says. <\/p>\n

\u201cIf we are talking tournament-wise or ranking-wise, of course it\u00a0is my dream to win grand-slams and become world No1 but, at the same time I want to play for as long as I can and stay healthy and take over from the previous generation.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Attempts to overthrow the duopoly at the top of men\u2019s tennis have thus far proved a Sisyphean task.\u00a0…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":490462,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[101,118,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-490461","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-sports","tag-tennis","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/490461","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=490461"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/490461\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/490462"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=490461"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=490461"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=490461"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}