Mensik upsets Fils in Miami Open quarterfinal, No. 1 Sabalenka advances to final
Talk about an upset.
The 54th-ranked Jakub Mensik bested the No. 17 overall player in Arthur Fils by a score of 7-6, 6-1 in the Miami Open quarterfinal, a stunning upset for the teenager from the Czech Republic.
“I was feeling really great,” Mensik said Thursday, later adding “the rhythm” and “physicality” were the keys to his success.
Mensik had Fils running for his life from the very beginning. The 19-year-old’s serves often couldn’t be returned in play as Fils often found himself running from baseline to baseline. Mensik himself finished with 13 aces to Fils’ one.
“It’s hard work and a lot of serves, a lot of drills, which during the match, I feel pretty confident and it’s my big weapon,” Mensik said.
By the end, the French 20-year-old looked as if he had ran out of gas – likely due to having played less than 24 hours prior. Mensik, meanwhile, hadn’t played since Sunday.
“Arthur is really good in the readies,” Mensik said. “He’s running so fast so it was really, really important to keep him moving and to play aggressive, baseline tennis.”
In his run to the semifinals, Mensik has now beat a total of three players ranked in the top-25 including Jack Draper (No. 6) in the second round, Tomas Machac (No. 20) in the fourth round and now Fils.
“Just go win,” Mensik said of his mindset. “I’m always trying to play my best tennis so of course I don’t mind if there is a guy who is top-100 or top-20. Of course there’s a difference – you can see it in how is he playing – but for me, my mindset is always the same.”
Unfortunately, the upset aura didn’t really last into the women’s match as the No. 1 ranked Arena Sabalenka took care of the seven-seeded Jasmine Paolini 6-2, 6-2 to advance to her first Miami Open Final.
“This was one of the best matches of the season so far,” Sabalenka said.
Sabalenka dominated from the very beginning and came in clutch when she needed it most as she won 80 percent (4/5) of her break points.
“Everything was just going smoothly my way,” the 26-year-old from Belarus said.
Novak Djokovic (No. 4) also edged out Sebastian Korda (No. 24) 6-3, 7-6 to advance to the semifinals against Grigor Dimitrov (No. 14). Djokovic’s road included victories over Rinky Hijikata (No. 86), Camilo Ugo Carabelli (No. 65) and Lorenzo Musetti (No. 15).
In her journey to the finals, Sabalenka beat Viktoriya Tomova (No. 64), Elena-Gabriela Ruse (No. 102), Danielle Collins (No. 15) and Qinwen Zheng (No. 9) before her most recent victory over Paolina.
With his victory, Mensik will face Taylor Fritz (No. 4) who beat Matteo Berrettini (No. 30) 7-5, 6-7, 7-5 in a hotly contested match that lasted nearly three hours.
Sabalenka will face the fourth-ranked Jessica Peluga in rematch of a rather riveting 2024 U.S. Open finals that ended in the Belarusian’s favor. Pegula ended rising star Alexandra Eala’s impressive run to semifinals 7-6, 5-7, 6-3 . Eala had grown to be a crowd favorite having beaten three Grand Slam champs during the 2025 Miami Open.
Peluga beat Emma Raducanu (No. 60), Marta Kostyuk (No. 29), Anna Kalinskaya (No. 33) and Bernarda Pera (No. 84) en route to the finals.
As for her approach to each player, Sabalenka wants to put the onus on herself rather than her opponent.
“I’ll make sure that I focus on myself not on that side,” Sabalenka said. “I hope I’ll be able to bring my best tennis and get the trophy.”
This story was originally published March 27, 2025 at 6:17 PM.
