Taylor Fritz hugging Jakub Mensik at the net. (Image: Getty.)
Taylor Fritz admitted he feels “horrible” having come so close to the Miami Open final, only to go down to Jakub Mensik. The Czech star prevailed 7-6(4) 4-6 7-6(4) thanks to a barrage of aces, 25 in total, which set up a final against Novak Djokovic on Sunday.
Fritz was the third seed entering the tournament and was desperate to reach another ATP Masters 1000 final on home soil. But could not deal with thundering serves of his 19-year-old opponent and was unable to hide his disappointment.
Mensik struggled to break Fritz’s serve throughout the contest, but the American insisted that provided no saving grace.
“That’s no consolation,” he told Punto de Break. “I was unable to play at the necessary level in both tiebreaks, so I feel horrible. His serve is crazy; it’s always been powerful, but now he’s also placing it with incredible precision.
“It’s also tremendous how he’s improved in all aspects of his game in such a short time. I think he has a chance to beat Djokovic; it all depends on whether Djokovic can sense his serve better than I can.”
Mensik enters Sunday’s Hard Rock Stadium showpiece as the third-lowest-ranked finalist in Miami Open history. The world No. 54 will jump up to 24 should he be successful in denying Djokovic a 100th career title, however.
A frustrated Taylor Fritz in Miami. (Image: Getty)
He is also the third youngest finalist, behind only Rafael Nadal and Carlos Alcaraz, and Fritz is backing Mensik to upset Djokovic if he serves in the same manner.
“Between the two tie-breaks, I have to win one of them. I have to play a little bit better,” Fritz added. “I think when I’m playing well, when I’m winning matches, it’s kind of just what I do. I pull through these situations. So to just kind of get out-toughed in two tie-breaks, it sucks. I did my job. I didn’t get broken. I didn’t face a break point until the third set, so… it sucks.
“If the conditions are fast enough [in the final] and he’s serving well enough, he’s always going to be in the match. It’s going to be tight. He’s going to have a solid chance.
“I’m not sure because I couldn’t return a serve, that doesn’t mean that Novak is not going to be able to return a serve. It’s going to depend on that.”
Even though Fritz was unable to reach his second Masters 1000 final appearance, after his 2022 run at Indian Wells, one consolation is that he will hold onto his world No. 4 ranking when entering the clay season.
