| October 6, 2024 | by Vivienne Christie |
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Jakub Mensik has long shown he is a wise head on young shoulders. From his former world No.2 junior heights, the 19-year-old Czech is now making swift progress in his first full year on tour.
At Doha earlier this season, he stunned Andy Murray, Gael Monfils and Andrey Rublev to reach a first tour-level final. He claimed another top-10 win, over Grigor Dimitrov, at the Madrid Masters in May.
But the teenager is showing new levels of maturity in his Rolex Shanghai Masters debut.
After navigating a three-set test over experienced Spaniard Pedro Martinez in his opening match at Qi Zhong Tennis Centre, Mensik added another statement win over No.6 seed Rublev to his growing record.
Competing against an opponent ranked almost 60 places higher, the world No.65 Mensik displayed maturity beyond his years against the 2023 Shanghai finalist. After dropping the first set in a tiebreak, he completed the 6-7(6) 6-4 6-3 win in two-and-a-half hours.
It added to the "youngest" records often mentioned alongside his achievements. The Prostejov-born Mensik is one of only two teenagers inside the ATP's top 100 and he's seven months junior to the other teen, Shang Juncheng.
With victory over Martinez in the first round, he became the fifth-youngest player to win a match in Rolex Shanghai Masters history.
"No, I don't care about these young records," Mensik smiled when asked if he pays attention to those numbers. "I'm just trying to be good and to reach the top level and it doesn't matter if I will play like this when I'm 19, or if it will be when I'm 22 or 25.
"Right now, in this situation I'm more like, taking in the experiences. In the future, it will be really great if I will be coming back for these tournaments."
That level-headed approach is helped by Mensik's impressive early influences.
As a finalist in the Australian Open 2022 boys' tournament, the young Czech caught the eye of his long-time hero, Novak Djokovic. He was subsequently invited by the Serbian to train with him in Belgrade.
"He just showed me how he's doing everything, you know, off the court, on the court," he said of his experience with the prolific champion. "So I was just watching how the best player in the history is doing that."
Fast-forward to his playing career and Mensik notes the privilege of competing alongside such star players at the world's most prestigious tournaments.
"When I started this year, when I started to play on tour, it was really something new, but now already I played a lot of tournaments around him and around these guys," he said.
"Of course, it's always a pleasure and the dream come true. It's (a) really good feeling that you can be on this level with all these best players in the world."
There are also positive influences among his fellow Czechs.
Alongside No.33 seed Jiri Lehecka and Tomas Machac, the teenager is one of three countrymen competing in Shanghai. The trio were joined earlier in the tournament by former world No.4 Tomas Berdych, the Czech Republic's incoming Davis Cup captain.
A grateful Mensik explained that the Czechs are a tight-knit group. "We were playing Davis Cup all together, so we are spending a lot of time together," he said.
"It's really great that we have a good relationship because everyone is young and with big perspective. In the future, we can do big things."
Mensik aims to continue his eye-turning progress in Shanghai against Alexander Shevchenko, who, he defeated in their only other match at the recent Paris Olympics.
At the same time, there's no pressure as the 19-year-old takes in every new experience on tour.
"It's my first year on tour and (I'm) visiting new places every time," said Mensik. "I played really good matches here so I'm glad that my form is going up. And yeah so far, I like Shanghai and China overall. I'm feeling really good."
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