By Chris Oddo | @TheFanChild | Saturday March 29, 2025
Jakub Mensik fired 25 aces in his three-set win over Taylor Fritz to become the third youngest player to reach a Miami Open men’s singles final. The vanquished American had nothing but praise for the improvements that the Czech teen has made since the pair last met at the US Open in 2023.
“He’s really good,” Fritz said after the 7-6(4), 4-6, 7-6(4) loss. “I played him on his 18th birthday at the Open. Obviously he’s improved a lot since then. I think he’s improved naturally, like almost everything in his game has improved. When you’re young like that, you’re just going to get better.”
Fritz had a lot of trouble making inroads against Mensik’s serve. He broke once in the middle set but that was all he could manage against the teen.
“The serve is a massive improvement,” Fritz said. “I played him at the US Open in ’23. He had a big serve, but he didn’t place it that well. I was able to just be on his serve all the time. It was big, but he didn’t hit the spots.”
Fritz said that the pinpoint location of Mensik’s serve was what made such a problem to contend with. He added that guessing might have been his biggest chance.
“The spot serving today was insane,” Fritz said. “I really should have just started guessing and picking a side more often instead of trying to react and use my reach like I normally do. I felt like either he missed the serve or he hit it within an inch or two of the line. I really should have just started guessing.”
