{"id":2162,"date":"2025-03-30T00:00:09","date_gmt":"2025-03-30T00:00:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/?p=2162"},"modified":"2025-03-30T00:00:09","modified_gmt":"2025-03-30T00:00:09","slug":"djokovic-to-face-mensik-in-100th-title-bid","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/?p=2162","title":{"rendered":"Djokovic to face Mensik in 100th title bid"},"content":{"rendered":"
Novak Djokovic moved to within one win of his 100th career title on Friday, outclassing Grigor Dimitrov 6-2, 6-3 to cruise into the final of the Miami Open, where he will play Czech teenager Jakub Mensik.<\/p>\n

Djokovic, who now has a 13-1 record against the Bulgarian, totally dominated the contest, which was over in 69 minutes.<\/p>\n

The Serb — who at 37 is now the oldest man to reach an ATP Masters 1000 final — will take on a 19-year-old in Sunday’s final after the big-serving Mensik beat world number four Taylor Fritz 7-6 (7\/4), 4-6, 7-6 (7-4).<\/p>\n

The match between Djokovic and his 33-year-old opponent was the oldest semi-final in Masters 1000 history, with a combined age of 70, but it was the older of the pair who dominated.<\/p>\n

Djokovic was broken on his first service game but that was the extent of his difficulties as he maintained his record of never losing in a Miami semi-final.<\/p>\n

The serve was once again Djokovic’s strong suit — he made 87% of his first serves and hit five aces — but his all-round game was impressive and he will head into Sunday’s final confident of becoming only the third man after Jimmy Connors (109) and Roger Federer (103) to win 100 titles.<\/p>\n

“It was very windy today, very difficult to control the ball, changing direction all the time but I had good serves and held my nerves,” Djokovic said.<\/p>\n

“The serve was again the highlight of the match for me. I think it was 84% last game and I thought that would be difficult to beat that but today it was 87% so I don’t know what to say?<\/p>\n

“Hopefully I can continue in the same fashion because that definitely make my life easier.”<\/p>\n

After a slow start to the season, Djokovic has his swagger back and his eye on his 100th win.<\/p>\n

“After the Olympics, which was the 99th title, every tournament I play in has been going for 100 and I haven’t be able to achieve that. Hopefully Sunday, I am going to go all in,” he said.<\/p>\n

Dimitrov has now lost 10 straight matches against the Serb and was philosophical in defeat.<\/p>\n

“He’s just doing the basics extremely well, better than anyone. You just cannot let yourself take a step down or make an easy error,” he said.<\/p>\n

Lionel Messi was in the stands to watch the game after training nearby with Inter Miami and Djokovic was delighted to see him.<\/p>\n

“It was a huge honour to have King Leo in the stands. It was the first time I have played in front of him,” Djokovic said.<\/p>\n

As expected, the contest between Mensik and Fritz was a baseline battle which was ultimately decided by two tie-breaks won by the Czech.<\/p>\n

Fritz ended up in the unusual position of losing despite his serve not being broken — he faced just two break points in the whole game.<\/p>\n

“It doesn’t really take the pain away too much. Between the two breakers, like, I have to win one of them. I have to play a little bit better,” said the American.<\/p>\n

Mensik blasted 25 aces and kept the pressure on Fritz throughout with his relentless power-hitting as he reached his first Masters 1000 final.<\/p>\n

The hand of GOAT, Mensik wins with Messi touch<\/p>\n

Messi went into the locker-rooms at Hard Rock Stadium to meet Djokovic after his earlier win over Grigor Dimitrov, and was introduced to Mensik.<\/p>\n

“Meeting this legend, not even a human, it’s not happening every day,” said Mensik.<\/p>\n

“I just chilled with him a bit and shook his hand. And after shaking that hand, I didn’t wash it before the match, you know, to bring me some luck, so probably that was the key for me today,” he said with a smile.<\/p>\n

Mensik certainly had Messi on his mind at the end of the game when after his victory he wrote on the camera lens “Thank you Leo”.<\/p>\n

The Czech said he was glad to have had the opportunity to have seen the personal side of Messi away from his performances on the field.<\/p>\n

“It’s not just that he has won those Champions Leagues and World Cups and everything (it was) seeing he’s also a human. It’s really awesome that the dream came true,” he said. AFP<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Novak Djokovic moved to within one win of his 100th career title on Friday, outclassing Grigor Dimitrov 6-2, 6-3 to cruise into the final of the Miami Open, where he will play Czech teenager Jakub Mensik. Djokovic, who now has a 13-1 record against the Bulgarian, totally dominated the contest, which was over in 69 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2162","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-english-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2162","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2162"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2162\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2162"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2162"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2162"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}