Madrid (Spain) – Czech Jakub Mensik, 74th in the rankings at the age of 18, caused another surprise at the Masters 1000 in Madrid. In the first clay tournament in the professional phase of his career, he defeated the experienced Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrov, seed 9, with scores of 6/2, 6/7 (4-7) and 6/3.
This was Mensik’s second victory over a top 10, repeating the one he had over Andrey Rublev in Doha, where he finished as runner-up. He will now face Canadian Félix Auger-Aliassime, who is finally staging a reaction. He also took out a favorite, French left-hander Adrian Mannarino, 6/0 and 6/4. The winner of the match can next face Norwegian Casper Ruud.
It was up to the also young Flavio Cobolli, a 21-year-old Italian and 64th in the world, to defeat the 22nd seed in the tournament, the Chilean Nicolas Jarry, with partials of 6/3,3/6 and 6/3. He will be the opponent of Russian Karen Khachanov, after the 16th favorite defeated Spanish veteran Roberto Bautista, 3/6, 6/3 and 7/5. Jannik Sinner’s opponent could emerge from this match in the quarterfinals.
Two great servers will face each other in the lower quadrant. American left-hander Ben Shelton easily beat Czech Tomas Machac, 6/0 and 6/2, and will face Kazakh Alexander Bublik, who reacted on Spaniard Roberto Carballes and scored 1/6, 6/ 2 and 6/2. The winner will face Daniil Medvedev or Sebastian Korda.
Tags: #18yearold Czech sensation eliminates Dimitrov
