New Miami Open champion Jakub Mensik revealed that he signed papers to withdraw from the tournament, but a referee being on their lunch break stopped him from delivering that paperwork before going on to win the event. The Czech 19-year-old defeated Novak Djokovic 7-6(4), 7-6(4) to claim an almighty scalp in Florida.
But Mensik’s tournament could have been over before it even started. Before his opening match against Roberto Bautista Agut, the teenager was suffering from immense pain in his knee and initially wanted to pull out.
However, having been made to wait by an absent match official, Mensik received treatment from an ATP Tour physio who he has credited for the “miracle” work allowing the player to compete.
“Big special thanks to one of the ATP physios, Alejandro,” Mensik said in his winning speech. “One hour before my first match here I was holding the paper to pull out from the tournament because my knee was hurting a lot.
“I was just lucky that the referee was having lunch. Then for the last time I came for the treatment. He did a miracle. Because of him I stepped on the court. Because of him I’m standing here.”
Only a hopeful visit to the physio allowed Mensik to carry on competing, having filled out the necessary paperwork to pull out of the competition but made to wait by a referee who was taking a break for lunch.
“I was like OK, well let’s just visit the physios. I told them, ‘my knee is hurting, I filled out the paper and I’m going’,” Mensik added in his post-match press conference.
“The physio said let’s see and he started to do a couple of treatments, he took care of it for like 30 minutes. He said it is nothing serious and you can play with this pain and nothing will happen.”
Mensik attempted to test his knee in the hour that the referee was out of action, taking to the treadmill and much to his surprise, was able to run without any pain.
“I was really suffering,” the teenager explained. “I took a different painkiller, switched it up a bit and started to feel a little relief. It was 30 minutes before the match, I thought: ‘I can walk, I can run, let’s see’.”
