In a year that has seen teens make headlines across the globe in tennis, 19-year-old Jakub Mensik became the latest to put his name in lights.
The 54th-ranked Czech battled past American Taylor Fritz in a pitcher’s duel on Friday night in Miami, coming through on the strength of two tiebreaks to reach his maiden Masters 1000 final.
Mensik earned a 7-6(4), 4-6, 7-6(4) win over the 27-year-old American, thanks to 25 aces and plenty of clutch moments.
"It was pretty tough on the return for both of us," Mensik said. "We were serving really great today."
The Czech, who will turn 20 in September, is the third youngest men's singles final in Miami Open history.
Mensik won 60 of 73 first serve points as the pair fired bullets at one another for the duration of the two hour and 25-minute battle.
Mensik never did solve Fritz’s serve – he missed out on both of his break point opportunities early in the third set – but he didn’t need to. Instead he improved to 5-0 in tiebreaks at Miami this year and became the third male player to ever reach the Miami Open final on his main draw debut.
"It was the decider, to stay focused and to show my best performance in the tiebreaks," Mensik said.
Mensik improves to 7-5 lifetime against the Top 10 with his win, which places him third in winning percentage against the Top 10, below only Novak Djokovic and Carlos Alcaraz, of all active players with 10 or more matches against Top 10 players.
He is the first Czech player to reach a Masters final since Tomas Berdych in 2015.
Mensik will face his idol and friend Novak Djokovic in the final, the Czech bidding for his first ATP title as the 37-year-old bids for his 100th.
Djokovic defeated Mensik in their only previous meeting, at Shanghai in the quarterfinals last year.
"It feels incredible," Mensik said. "For me it was a dream to play against him in Shanghai. Now it's a bit different. I'm a better player now than I was in Shanghai. I'm going to enjoy, it's going to be really exciting and I'm really looking forward to compete against him."
More to follow…