"That was the key for today": Jakub Mensik highlights interesting reason behind Miami Open semifinal triumph against Taylor Fritz

Czech Republic’s young tennis star, Jakub Mensik, has revealed an interesting reason that he believes led him to a win in the semifinal of the Miami Open. The 19-year-old arguably registered the biggest win of his career as he defeated the 2024 US Open runner-up, America’s Taylor Fritz, in the last-four clash with a score of 7-6, 4-6, 7-6.

Talking after the match, Mensik was quoted in a report by Daily Express where he stated that the key to winning the match was the fact that he did not wash his hands after meeting Argentina’s legendary forward Lionel Messi, who was in the stands to watch both semifinals. “I shook his hand. I was kind of chilling with him a bit so I didn’t wash my hand before stepping on court. That was the key for today,” he said.

With that win, the youngster set up the final against the former world number one Serbia’s Novak Djokovic, who cemented his spot in the last two after beating Bulgaria’s Grigor Dimitrov in the semifinal in straight sets with a score of 6-2, 6-3. Talking after the match, Mensik stated that it feels ‘incredible’ to play against a legendary player like Djokovic. He also highlighted how difficult it was to beat Fritz on the day who gave him no chance to ‘break’.

“It feels incredible,” he said about facing the 37-year-old.. “It was a dream to play against him in Shanghai. For now it’s a bit different. I am a better player now and I’m going to enjoy and it’s going to be really exciting. Let’s see what’s going to happen Sunday. The return was tough today. We were serving really great today so he didn’t give me an opportunity to break him. It was just the tie-breaks for me that was the decider. I came to show my best performance in the tie-breaks.”

It will be only the second meeting between the two players in professional tennis. In the only previous meeting, which was in the quarterfinal of the Shanghai Masters last year, it was Djokovic who came out on top with a score of 6-7, 6-1, 6-4.