In beating idol Novak Djokovic, Jakub Mensik came of age in Miami

Maybe the legs get tired, or the nerves get frayed, when they’re forced to play a series of matches in a short span of time. Maybe the hunger is dulled or sated by all the wins that have come before. Maybe you get older and your opponents stay young.

Whatever the reason, there’s something about finals and aging legends that doesn’t mix.

Coming into the 2000 US Open, Pete Sampras had won eight straight Grand Slam finals. In that year’s title match, he lost to Marat Safin in straight sets, and then proceeded to lose his next six finals—including his next Slam final the following year. When he finally won another, at the 2002 Open, he retired.

Coming into the 2016 Australian Open final, Serena Williams had won 13 of her previous 14 major finals. She lost that year to Angelique Kerber, and then lost five of her next seven, including the last four.

Novak Djokovic isn’t on that type of streak quite yet. Just last summer, he triumphed in one of the most important finals of his long career, at the Paris Olympics. But the number of runner-up finishes is growing begun: He has lost the last two Wimbledon finals to Carlos Alcaraz; he lost to Jannik Sinner in the championship match in Shanghai last October; now, perhaps most significantly, he has lost to 19-year-old Jakub Mensik, 7-6 (4), 7-6 (4) at the Miami Open.

Read more: Jakub Mensik becomes first teen to beat Djokovic in straight sets

Everything that could bother a 37-year-old who has been away from home for a month happened to him on Sunday. It was 80 degrees and humid—Florida humid. The match was delayed by rain for five hours; Djokovic himself went out and helped dry the court at one point. He appeared to have a stye over his right eye; he went through 10 shirt changes; and he looked exhausted even in the early going. By the end of the second set, he struggled, and often failed, just to get his backhand over the net.

“Very weird match, weird day with rain delay and all the things happening,” Djokovic said. “Honestly, yeah, I didn’t feel my greatest on the court, but it is what it is. Nothing to take away from his victory.”

The most important “thing that was happening,” of course, was Mensik. If Djokovic’s loss was a sign of age and decline, the teenager’s win—it was his first ATP title of any sort—was a sign of things to come. Like Jack Draper at Indian Wells two weeks ago, Mensik officially put his name in the future Grand Slam title contender hat.

In Miami, he beat three Top 10 opponents—Draper, Djokovic, and Taylor Fritz—went seven for seven in tiebreakers, and showed off a serve that will be one of the most important weapons in men’s tennis for the next decade.

“I was not able to sleep for two days,” Mensik said of the build-up to the final. “I was feeling, you know, nerves. I was trying to hold it, of course, but yeah, I mean, with this finals doing for the first time and everything, it’s just very, very tough.”

Sometimes it’s better to be young and blind than older and experienced. This was Djokovic’s 142nd final; it was only Mensik’s second. A few weeks earlier, after losing in the second round at Indian Wells, he was playing in the Dominican Republic at the Cap Cana Challenger. But it was the Czech who jumped out to a 3-0 lead, and avoided feeling any early doubts. It was Mensik who used his serve to stay level with Djokovic, even after the Serb found his range. And it was Mensik who played better when it mattered most, in the tiebreakers.

If there was a shot that summed up Djokovic’s evening, it came with him serving at 3-4 in the second-set tiebreaker. Mensik had just hit what may have been his worst and most nervous shot of the night, a rushed backhand that landed in the middle of the net, and gave back a mini-break. Was it the lifeline Djokovic needed? On the next point, the two traded groundstrokes; the longer the rally went, the more likely it seemed Djokovic would win it. Instead, when he tried to up the pace on a forehand, he drilled it straight into the net.

“When we had a rally, like, 50/50 rally, I was feeling that he’s better than me,” Mensik said.

But at the right moments, he made a tactical change that helped.

“In the tiebreakers, I knew that if I can really start to focus on my return, put it just ball in. And then, give my best in the rallies, and…I didn’t do the mistakes like I was doing during the whole set, and yeah, actually, he was the one who did the first mistake.”

Djokovic remains stuck at 99 career titles, four behind Roger Federer and 10 behind Jimmy Connors. Will 100 titles become a long-running obstacle for him, the way 24 Slams became one for Serena?

If there was anyone he didn’t mind losing to, Djokovic said, it was Mensik. The Czech has always idolized him, and Djokovic has gone out of his way to advise him and practice with him. It was obviously an emotional day for Mensik, but he ended it with a statement of purpose for the future.

“The first of many,” Mensik wrote on the camera lens afterward.

It felt less like bluster than a simple statement of truth.