19-year-old Jakub Mensik makes Australian Open statement with clinical Casper Ruud win

Jakub Mensik has long been a talent to look out for but it is the Australian Open where he is putting in the hard yards and producing the statement wins as like Joao Fonseca before him yesterday, he has dumped out a top 10 player in Casper Ruud.

Mensik had an arduous task in his first round seeing off Nikoloz Basilashvili 6-1, 6-7, 6-3, 6-3 and it was another four set encounter as the Czech 19-year-old produced tennis from the gods at times to quell the test of the Norwegian who becomes the biggest name to fall thus far.

Winning in just over two hours, Mensik broke twice for an emphatic opening set salvo as he claimed it 6-2 saving break points prior to his back-to-back break.

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It was the opposite in set two as Ruud finally came to play and broke for 4-2, saved break points in the next game before closing it out but sets three and four saw Mensik bring his best tennis. He breezed through the third 6-1 in a real statement display where he was firing on all cylinders cross court.

Set four was more tight but still saw the same result. He bided his time as both exchanged pretty simple service games to love before he himself broke rampantly with the finishing line firmly in sight. He claimed it on the solitary break 6-4 to book a third round spot and claim a first top 10 win.

After not performing in the same Next Gen that saw Fonseca win, it is very much finally striking when the iron is hot for Mensik. He now faces Alejandro Davidovich Fokina or Felix Auger Aliassime in a section that features Tommy Paul as the main seed and could also gleam a tie between Alcaraz and Mensik down the line if he gets that far.

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