It was more than solid work on court No. 7 in Menšík’s service. During the 140-minute match, he faced eight break points, but did not let the opponent have a single one. One hundred percent possession of the serve, he opened 12 aces and took one serve from Shapovalov in each set. The result should not be overshadowed by the fact that the Canadian is returning after a knee injury and a half-year break.
“I will do everything to continue this Australian journey, to play more great matches,” said Menšík before his debut in the main competition in Melbourne. In the second round, he could meet another tough caliber in the form of Pole Hubert Hurkacz, seeded nine.
Menšík stunned the tennis audience already at last year’s US Open, when he went from qualification to the third round as a seventeen-year-old. “Cuba has tremendous self-confidence, they dare against solid players and their knees won’t knock,” commented Davis Cup captain Jaroslav Navrátil.
Photo: Alessandra Tarantino, CTK/AP
Czech tennis player Jakub Menšík in the opening round of the Australian Open against Denis Shapovalov.
And the occasional drummer and fan of micro magic makes him happy in Australia as well. At the tournament in Canberra, he made it to the finals and after the win over Shapovalov, he has a 7-1 match record of the year!
But the Canadian must already have a bit of a complex about his Czech opponents. In 2021, he lost to Vít Kopřiva in Gstaad, and the year before in Rotterdam to Jiří Lehečka and in Dubai to Jiří Veselý. And on Monday, he was trampled by another player with a Czech flag.
“It’s always different at Grand Slams. Upon arrival, you immediately have the good feeling that you are at the top and can play with these guys, that’s a big motivation for me,” recounted Menšík, who played in the junior singles final at Melbourne Park in 2022, and his struggle with cramps then made headlines world.
“We tried to do some things better so it wouldn’t happen to me again. I played three matches in the qualification, two of them were harder than the first, but I felt very good on the court, at ease. That’s all you need.’
In an autumn interview with Sport.cz, Menšík mentioned that he would like to get into the top 100 ATP this year. “But it’s terribly difficult when you still have to defend last year’s results. It’s no fun, it’s going to be hard,” he sighed. But in Australia, he added one more to his list of goals: participating in December’s Next Gen of the best under-21 players in Saudi Arabia.
Foreign journalists have already noticed, among whom Menšík’s nickname ‘New Berdych’, referring to the former fourth player in the world, has started to catch on. If the player from Prostějov was also aiming for the same heights, it would be great news for Czech tennis.
