Crowned "new master", can Mensik become a "spoiler" in men's tennis?

The men's singles title at the 2025 Miami Masters goes to 19-year-old Czech rising star Mensick in a potentially surprising outcome for everyone – including himself. After winning the Masters for the first time, Mensik revealed at the award ceremony that he was only "one thought away" from retiring before the first round, and after a small "miracle", he stood on the field and became the "new master" as a dark horse.

Mensik won the Masters for the first time (Photo: Visual China)

"Two days before my first fight, my knee started to feel uncomfortable, and I talked to the doctor, to everyone. "Actually, it wasn't a big deal, it was just a bit of a bad inflammation, but I couldn't walk or run, it didn't work, I started taking painkillers." On the day of the race, it didn't get any better, I tried to run on the treadmill but I couldn't move, and I thought, 'That's it, I'll quit the race.'" ’”

"I didn't actually do anything, I went to the doctor's office to get the withdrawal papers, and when I was about to go to the referee's office to say retirement, I was going to go to the physiotherapy room, but he (the referee) was having lunch, so I went to the physiotherapy room first...... He tried a couple of treatments (30 minutes) and he told me, 'It's not a serious problem, you can play with pain and no bad consequences.' After a few minutes, I started to feel a little better, I took a few painkillers and the pain eased a lot. Then I was able to start running 30 minutes before the start of the race, and then I won the first round, and then my knee was getting better and better. ”

Mensik made a splash in Doha last year (Photo: Visual China)

The Czech-born young star didn't come out of nowhere, and his explosion is well documented. In February 2024, Mensik won a wild card to Doha with the new ATP rules (the top 250 U20 players can directly enter one ATP 250 main event every year), when he defeated former world No. 1 Murray, top seed Rublev, French star Monfils and others to reach the first ATP Tour final of his career, and the world ranking broke the top 100 mark. Over the past year, he has continued to realize his talents, achieving a series of results such as the quarterfinals of the Shanghai Masters, the quarterfinals of Vienna, and the semifinals of Umag, and the world ranking entered the top 50 at the end of the year, and was elected as the best newcomer of the 2024 ATP.

Djokovic saw the youngster's potential early on, and after witnessing Menchik's three-set defeat in the 2022 Australian Open junior men's singles final, he contacted Menchik's team through his agent and invited him to train with him.

"Honestly, he's one of the few players I'd like to lose to." Djokovic was generous in his post-match interview, "I watched him play when he was 15 or 16 years old, and I invited him to do a couple of joint training sessions. He came to train at my club in Belgrade at that time and it's really great to see the progress and improvement he has made. Three or four years ago, I could have seen that he was going to be one of the best players in the world. I'm happy to see that he's showing his potential because he has a very well-rounded skill set. Obviously he's got a great serve, he's got a lot of power and he's very accurate, and he can get a lot of easy points on his serve. He's got a great backhand as well, the Czech has always had a good backhand, but he's also made a lot of progress on the forehand, and for a tall guy like him, he's got a lot of sliding and moving, and of course he can continue to improve, so I'm sure he'll have a lot more in the future. ”

Menshik and Novak Djokovic train together in Belgrade (Photo: Players' social media)

After Mensik won the championship point, he and Djokovic hugged for a long time in front of the net, and the Czech has previously stated in interviews that Djokovic is his long-time idol. "You can see what a great guy he [Deyo] is, he's a real champion, and even though he's won so many titles and all his achievements, he's still going to be able to compete for titles in the biggest tournament on the ATP Tour. Because of him, I started playing tennis and I grew up watching him play. It's unbelievable to have the opportunity to play against him, and to beat him in the final of this tournament and win an ATP title is a dream come true for me, and since it's a Masters, facing Novak in the final makes it even more special. ”

Mensik wrote "The 1st of many" on camera after the race – which he hopes will be the first of many future titles.

"I know this title is just the beginning for me, not the end. I'm only 19 years old now, so I have a long career ahead of me and it's great to win this title now, but it's not enough to have a title or a tournament, I'm hungry to win more. I'm going to celebrate and rest, and when I get home, I'm going to keep training and get stronger, because I still have a lot of room to improve in tennis, so my team and I will do everything we can to help me win more titles." ”

Young Mensik and Berdych (Photo: Player Social Media)

Berdych won his first and only Masters title in Paris in 2005, the same year Mensik was born in Prostyov in the east-central Czech Republic, and 20 years later he became the second Czech player since Berdych to win the Masters.

Although the Czech Republic is a small country in geography, it is a big sports country, and it has a deep foundation in the field of tennis. Since Navratinova and Lendl (both of whom later became American citizens) in the last century, Czech tennis has been full of talent. Pete Korda, who won the Australian Open in 1998, moved to the United States after retiring from the sport, where he raised three children, including the current world No. 25 American Korda and two golfing daughters. Novotna won the women's singles title at Wimbledon in 1998 before she died of cancer at the age of 49.

Since the beginning of this century, Czech tennis has shown a situation of "yin and yang", and this small country with a population of just over 10 million has bred many female tennis stars, including two-time Wimbledon champion Kvitova, former singles queen Karolina Pliskova, "ghost baby" Safarova, and former doubles queen Strycova. Between 2011 and 2018, the Czech Legion won the Billie Jean King Cup (formerly the Confederations Cup) six times, demonstrating its reign of terror. At present, there are as many as six Czech players in the WTA singles TOP100 - two-time Grand Slam winner Krejcikova, 2023 Wimbledon champion Vondrousova, 2023 French Open runner-up Mukhova, current doubles queen Siniakova, Noskova and Bouzkova.

Leheka, Mahachi, Mensik (Photo: Visual China)

However, on the men's side, only Berdych and Stepanek have taken the lead, with the Czech Republic's last Grand Slam singles men's champion being Pete Koda. However, with the rise of Mensik, the "Czech Three" has taken shape, and Makhac, Mensik and Lehecka are currently in the TOP30. At present, it seems that the most promising one of them is undoubtedly Mensick, can he challenge Sinner, Alcaraz and others in the future to become a strong contender for the Grand Slam title, breaking the situation that the Czech men's tennis has not won a Grand Slam in singles for more than 20 years? We'll see.

(Text, Editor/Faye Wong)