Jacob Mensik and Coach coach Tomas Josefus sheds light on how tennis icon Novak Djokovic helped the rising ATP star earlier in his career.
The couple revealed that Djokovic invited Mensik to practice with him and openly shared his “knowledge and relationship” with the 18-year-old player.
Mensik said he was one of the brightest talent in men’s soccer in 2024 by rapidly climbing from 167th at the start of the year to a career-high ranking of 69th this month.
Czech, currently ranked 74th, holding an impressive 10-5 record in this tournament.
Mensik reached the third round of the ongoing Madrid Open 2024 after victories over Jannick Hanfmann and Grigor Dimitrov, before being forced to retire against Felix Auger-Aliassime. He rose to No. 65 on the live ATP rankings.
We were taking the leap when Jakub received a video on his phone from a Serbian number he didn’t know . He did not hesitate to share his knowledge and connections. We closed the doors in front of us and Novak opened them,” the coach explained.
Mensik shared his memories of the story and admitted that he initially doubted whether the message was real coming from Djokovic or not.
> “At first I thought it was a hoax, but it was really him. Novak was my childhood idol, you can imagine my joy,” Mensik said in the same interview.