In their first tour-level meeting, Czech player Jakub Mensik overpowered sixth seed Jack Draper 7-6(2), 7-6(3) just shy of two hours on Grandstand to reach the third round at the Miami Open presented by Itau on Saturday.
In his on-court interview, he outlined: “The most important thing today was the serve, that was key. I knew in the second set, it was going to be tough at the 30/30 moments and in the tiebreak, so I just tried to stay focused. I’m super glad that I kept the focus until the end.”
The British No. 1 racquet began his run at the second Masters 1000 of the season, bidding to become the first man since Roger Federer (2017) to achieve the Sunshine Double in Florida.
A battle of big servers soon unfolded into a tight match with little margins for error.
The 19-year-old hit first, finding an edge behind an exceptional service performance, hit 22 winners overall behind his sharp delivery, closing out the first set tiebreak 7-6(2) to earn the early lead.
Draper, who reached a career-high world No. 7 on Monday after claiming the BNP Paribas Open title last weekend, saw himself trailing from a set deficit as he opened his campaign in Miami Gardens.
The 23-year-old went toe-to-toe through the second set, aiming to force a decider to keep his chances alive.
Moreover, he fended off a break point in the seventh game, playing some of his best tennis to hold his ground, coming out on top 4-3.
Then, the match was suspended as the crowd in the stands started to leave, furious. Most of them had been waiting for the next contest, featuring Brazilian Joao Fonseca and French Ugo Humbert, which was moved last minute from the Grandstand to the Stadium.
Once play resumed, Mensik picked out where he left off, firing groundstrokes before holding at love to set level 4-4.
From there, the young Czech dug deep, forcing back-to-back tiebreaks.
He made a confident start, earning a mini break at 4-2, and never looked back, sealing the set and the encounter with his ace number 21 to advance to a Masters 1000 third round for the third time in his career.
He hit 46 winners against 27 unforced errors, won 86 percent of the points on his first serve, and converted one of nine break points.
Meanwhile, Draper struck 27 winners to 27 unforced errors, saving 8 out of 9 break points across a battle of titans.
Next, the player mentored by Tomas Josefus will square off against world No. 71 Roman Safiullin, who took out 25th seed Alexei Popyrin in three sets.