ĐOKOVIĆ DENIED 100TH TITLE BY HIS IDOL’S STUDENT: Menšik (19) Overcomes His Mentor in Miami Final! (VIDEO)

Serbian tennis player Novak Đoković failed to win the Miami Masters and thus reach his 100th career title. In the grand final, Czech player Jakub Menšík was better than our ace, celebrating with a score of 2:0 (7:6(4), 7:6(4)).

Everyone hoped that this would be the match where Novak would win his jubilee career title and become the oldest Masters winner in history, but…

Everything conspired against Novak this afternoon and evening in Miami. Rain fell in Florida and interrupted matches for several hours, delaying the start of the final by almost six hours. This caused high humidity and difficult conditions that did not suit our ace at all, and to top it all off, he had an eye problem that appeared before the final.

However, the biggest problem was on the other side of the net. There was a young man who idolizes Novak and from whom he learned tennis, and who was incredibly good in this duel. He served as if in a trance, hit winners, remained calm in key moments, and in two tie-breaks, where Novak is strongest, he broke Đoković.

In this way, the Serbian was left without a major trophy, which could have been his 100th in his career, precisely at the place where he reached his first trophy in this category of tournament.

Menšík entered the match excellently, taking advantage of the fact that he served first and easily gained an advantage. Novak was nervous at the start of the duel, making too many mistakes, while young Jakub played as if in a trance – with a series of points, he managed to break immediately (2:0).

The situation did not change much in the continuation; Menšík had a three-game advantage before Novak reduced the difference with excellent serves (3:1).

In the fifth game, we saw a very dangerous situation when the entire stadium fell silent – Novak slipped and ended up on the floor. However, he managed to get up, continue the match, but Menšík once again had a three-game advantage.

However, Novak played much better in the continuation. With an excellent service game, he reduced the gap, then waited for Jakub’s blackout, a few mistakes, and very quickly, Novak erased the break difference (4:3).

Several quick games were seen, there were no break opportunities on either side, so after forty minutes of play, they entered a tie-break (6:6).

And there, an unrecognizable Novak. At the beginning of the tie-break, Menšík reached a point with the help of the net’s top, which apparently threw the Serbian off his rhythm. He made several more mistakes in the continuation and allowed his opponent to reach an incredible 5:0. Đoković reduced the difference a bit, but it was too big – Menšík used his third set point and reached an advantage in the grand final with 7:4.

The loss of the first set did not affect Novak, who looked good at the beginning of the second, especially in his service games. However, Menšík did not give up either, so in the first four games, we did not see any break points (2:2).

And then, complete madness. The Czech had two break chances to probably decide the match in his favor; Novak saved one with a serve, while Menšík sent the other out, allowing Nole a new advantage (3:2).

Đoković did not use this momentum; Menšík was simply incredible – he served perfectly and did not give Đoković a chance to return to the match, even in the game where he served to stay in the set (5:5).

It was visible in those moments that Novak was falling; the humidity was taking its toll, and Đoković was moving with increasing difficulty. He managed to save himself for a few minutes, force another tie-break, but in it, our ace fell again. He made several mistakes, Jakub did not give in to the pressure, and in the end, he was better in the second tie-break with the same result (7:4), thus reaching the first trophy of his career.

Source: Sportal Photo: EPA-EFE / CRISTOBAL HERRERA-ULASHKEVICH