Speaking in his post-match press conference on Tuesday, Mensik delved into the details of their first interaction, in which Djokovic invited him for a training session in Montenegro before he had emerged on the tour.<\/p>\n
“The relationship that we had and we are having with Novak, it’s so special and I’m super thankful for that,” Mensik said. <\/p>\n
“Basically the time when I was still not even starting on ATP Tour, I was still a junior, he invited me. He saw some potential in me. <\/p>\n
“Yeah, at the time it was really, really amazing experience. Of course, at the time I had a bad movement.<\/p>\n
“I was not still able to play on the Grand Slam. So at the time it was more about getting to know the tour and how the things works. <\/p>\n
“Actually, as I went through and having the experience on the Grand Slams, that was probably the key moment for me to take those experiences and to manage to come and to play on the Grand Slams how I’m playing.”<\/p>\n
Mensik is now among the players looking to capitalise on Djokovic’s early exit at the French Open.<\/p>\n
Djokovic led Fonseca by two sets before the Brazilian 19-year-old charged back to record an impressive comeback win. <\/p>\n
Fonseca had put himself among the front-runners to go on to win the title but Mensik quelled the teenager with a strong performance under a closed roof on Court Philippe-Chatrier, despite nursing a slight issue with his left leg.<\/p>\n
Mensik will go on to face title favourite Alexander Zverev in the semi-finals and Fonseca was full of praise for the Czech.<\/p>\n
“I mean, his serve is amazing,” Fonseca said. “The way he dealt with the important points is also really impressive. <\/p>\n
“Yeah, I think he controlled most of the part of the match. His return, both first and second serve, are pretty into the court and he puts a lot of pressure on the opponent. <\/p>\n
“Today, yeah, he missed a very small amount of returns. I think that put me in a tough position today. Yeah, I think it was his merit. <\/p>\n
![\"picture\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/image-9dbdd428-ab44-4210-b69b-79f407113ed4-85-2560-1440.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n
Highlights: Mensik claims thrilling three-set victory over fellow young gun Fonseca<\/p>\n
Video credit: TNT Sports<\/p>\n
“I tried to put as much as I could on my returns but he did well the serve and volley. He was serving very good. Yeah, I’ll say he has a really good potential. I mean, he already won a Masters. He’s doing his first semi-final. <\/p>\n
“He plays good. Most important, he knows how to play in important moments. He’s not afraid. He’s courageous and wish him all the best because he’s a nice and humble guy.”<\/p>\n
Add TNT Sports as a preferred source\u00a0here\u00a0<\/a>to enjoy more\u00a0content like this.\u00a0Stream every court from the 2026 French Open exclusively live on TNT Sports and HBO Max<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ouch! Watch as poor Mensik suffers severe cramp during press conference Video credit: SNTV Mensik, 20, is regarded…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":620421,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[183549,101,118,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-620420","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-roland-garros-mens-singles-2026","tag-sports","tag-tennis","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/620420","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=620420"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/620420\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/620421"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=620420"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=620420"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=620420"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}