Djokovic has been left alone to do battle with the ATP’s younger generations. Much younger, in some cases. The 19-year-old Mensik is a little more than half Djokovic’s age, and like so many young players these days, he’s bigger, too. Mensik is a powerfully-built 6’4”, and he fired 17 aces in their quarterfinal.
While Mensik is fairly new to the tour, he hasn’t escaped Djokovic’s eye for talent. With his role in the game’s nascent player union, the PTPA, he has kept up with the younger crowd, and he clearly enjoys doing battle with them. He sounded something like a proud father figure after his match with Mensik.
“Jakub is somebody that I have been following for the last three or four years,” Djokovic said. “We like playing each other, we raise the level when we face each other. We’ve played a lot of practice sets and it’s always fun.”
“I haven’t trained with him for a year and a half, so I could see today why he is one of the best servers we have in the game.”
That said, Djokovic sill found a way to beat him. He shrugged off the first set loss, broke right away in the second, and then broke again down the stretch in the third. He closed in style, with a love hold for a 6-7 (4), 6-1, 6-4 win.
