Photo: Getty Images
Grigor Dimitrov begins his participation in the tournament in Madrid, part of the “Masters 1000” series. As the ninth seed (world number one Novak Djokovic will not participate), the 32-year-old Bulgarian rested in the first round and starts in the second.
There he will meet the Czech Jakub Menšík, after he managed to handle Janik Hanfman with a 2:0 set. Menschik is only 18 years old and occupies the 74th position in the world ranking. Despite being a full 14 years younger than Dimitrov, Menshik has already hinted that he can be a very tricky opponent.
Who is Jakub Menshik – Grigor Dimitrov’s rival in Madrid?
More: WOW: Grigor Dimitrov took Daniil Medvedev to Madrid with supertennis – despite the mini-crisis, he smashed him (VIDEO)
This will be the first meeting between the two. Menschik himself admits that his favorite surface is hard, as he does not have that much experience at the ATP level on clay. His success against Yannick Hanfmann was actually the first he achieved on clay at the Masters.
The Czech loves to play the backhand with two hands, his favorite being to place it powerfully down the straight. His idol is Novak Djokovic. The teenager turned professional tennis player in 2022, winning 5 Futures trophies within seven months.
More: ‘I wanted to raise enough money to…’: Grigor Dimitrov on strange No. 1 motive for beating Djokovic
He can boast that last season he managed the qualifications and even reached the third round in the main draw of the US Open. In 2024, he started with a Challenger final in Canberra, and at the Australian Open he was very close to recording his first victory over a representative of the top 10 in the world ranking. However, then he lost in 5 sets against Hubert Hurkach.
In the end, the success in question over a top 10 player came shortly after – in Doha he beat Andrey Rublev, who is one of Grigor Dimitrov’s closest friends on the Tour. What’s more – Jakub Mensik even reached the final of the race, beating other names like Gael Monfils and Andy Murray.
Official: Grigor Dimitrov loses points – he withdrew from a tournament where he amazed the locals
Now he will try to prevail over Grisho for one of his two most valuable successes in his career, but the Bulgarian is still the big favorite in the duel. look when and where to watch Grigor Dimitrov vs. Jakub Menshik on TV.
