Lionel Messi took his family to the Hard Rock Stadium to watch Novak Djokovic and Jakub Mensik triumph in the semi-finals of the men’s singles at the Miami Open
Novak Djokovic moved one win away from claiming his 100th career title after comfortably seeing off Grigor Dimitrov to reach the Miami Open final in front of Lionel Messi. Djokovic eased past Dimitrov 6-2, 6-3 in Florida and will face unseeded Czech player Jakub Mensik in Sunday’s final.
Messi plays for Inter Miami and was in attendance with his family after missing the international break with Argentina due to a minor injury. He trained with Inter Miami on Friday before making his way to the Hard Rock Stadium to watch the men’s semi-finals.
Mensik stunned home favourite Taylor Fritz 7-6 (7-4), 4-6, 7-6 (7-4) to book himself a place in the final against Djokovic. The 19-year-old fired in 25 aces and will now compete in the first ATP Masters 1000 final of his young career.
Both Djokovic and Mensik said Messi had helped inspire them, having met the former Barcelona player behind the scenes. “I’m very glad, obviously, amazing to have him here, a great honour, a pleasure to play – I think for the first time – in front of him live,” Djokovic told TNT Sports.
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“So I’m really grateful that he was here with his son and family. I’ve admired him, of course, like most of the world for most of his career, so it’s amazing that he keeps going. We’re actually the same age, born in 1987, so it’s quite nice to have him around.
“And as far as my game goes, the serve was definitely the highlight of the match, I think it was 83 per cent in the last match and I thought it would probably be difficult to beat that, but today it was at 87 [per cent] so I don’t know what to say. I’ve been serving really well and hopefully I can continue in the same fashion because that definitely makes my life easier on the court.”
Djokovic later posted pictures of himself with Messi in the locker room, one with them holding up a signed Lacrosse tennis polo shirt and one with a No.10 Messi Inter Miami shirt. He wrote: “An honor to meet the greatness @leomessi and his whole family. Gracias Leo. Asta pronto”.
Djokovic will now be the huge favourite to see off Mensik and bring up a century of tournament wins in his first Miami final since 2016. “After the Olympics, which was the 99th title, I know that every tournament I play I’m going for 100,” he added.
“I haven’t been able to achieve that, until hopefully Sunday. I’m going to go all in, I haven’t dropped a set – I’m playing really good tennis, as good as I’ve played in a long time, so hopefully it (the 100th title) can come here.”
Mensik joked that shaking Messi’s hand and not washing afterwards was the “key” to defeating Fritz. “I shook his hand,” he said. “I was kind of chilling with him a bit so I didn’t wash my hand before stepping on court. That was the key for today.”
