Jakub Mensik has just broken ATP record which has stood for five years after making quarter-final in Umag

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With the Olympics now just around the corner, many players are rushing to ensure that their preparation is completed.

However, for others, these games are not an option. Instead, the ATP and WTA tour continues to drag on, with the US Open the next outstanding target for them to try and hit.

Whether it be injury or a poor ranking, there are a whole host of stars set to miss the tournament, but Jakub Mensik is not one of them.

And yet, despite his attendance at the upcoming games, he is currently mid-way through a tournament in Croatia, and coincidentally, making history too.

Jakub Mensik makes history in Umag

At just 18 years and ten months old, the Czech tennis star is a promising talent who has already shown his quality despite having yet to win an ATP title.

Having reached his first final this year though in Doha, the future is exceedingly bright, and his run in Umag, Croatia only exemplifies this.

First beating Australian’s Alexei Popyrin, he set up a clash with the Italian and fifth seed Luciano Darderi.

It promised to be a far harder task for the teenage sensation, yet he once again won with ease, reaching the quarter-finals without having dropped a set.

In doing so, he has actually shattered a five-year record, having become the youngest player to reach this stage of an ATP tournament on all three surfaces. The last to do so was Felix Auger-Aliassime, five years earlier.

One pundit would comment on this success, with pundit Prakash Amiritraj noting: ‘Watch out for this youngster. This guy packs a punch. He is really good at dictating the play from all around the court and he moves so well.’

Jakub Mensik did train with Novak Djokovic this year too, which can only have helped his development.

Watch out for Jakub Mensik

Whilst he is without a title, Mensik’s 2024 has been a revolutionary one, having actually only really broken onto the ATP circuit regularly this year.

His first real emergence came in last year’s US Open, as he thundered through qualifying and the initials two rounds before losing to Taylor Fritz in the third round.

A solid return, this shot his ranking up significantly, and he hasn’t looked back since.

Now sat 76th in the world, he has already enjoyed some monumental scalps too, particularly in that aforementioned run to the final in Qatar.

There, he dumped out Alejandro Davidovich Fokina and Andy Murray, before then becoming the youngest player to defeat a top-5 player since Carlos Alcaraz overcame Stefanos Tsitsipas at the US Open in 2021, by beating the top seed Andrey Rublev.

In the end, second seed Karen Khachanov in the final proved a step too far, but already his talents were there for all to see.

A huge athlete, standing at 6 foot 4, yet boasting remarkably quick feet, Amiritraj is right to warn people to watch out for Mensik.