Jakub Mensik has been criticised for his performance against Alexander Zverev in the Roland Garros semi-finals.
Mensik was beaten by Alexander Zverev 7-5, 6-2, 3-6, 6-3 in the first Grand Slam semi-final of his young career.
The Czech had already played two five set matches in Paris, with Mensik taking a medical timeout in the third set of his match against Zverev.
Despite Mensik clearly not being fully fit for his semi-final against Zverev, former world number one Andy Roddick has claimed he has little sympathy in his criticism of the 20-year-old’s performance.
Andy Roddick claims Jakub Mensik did not play well vs Alexander Zverev
Roddick spoke about Mensik’s performance against Zverev in the latest edition of his ‘Served with Andy Roddick‘ podcast, where he claimed he did not play that well.
Mensik was frequently attempting drop shots, as well as serve and volleying, something that Roddick believes Zverev will have sensed as him having little confidence in his game.
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Roddick also spoke about Mensik not being 100%, but this was not something he has much sympathy for.
“I don’t think Mensik played that well,” said Roddick. “I don’t think his strategy was great. It seemed to me like he was looking to get out of any prolonged rallies, even in the first set. He was hitting the drop shot early, he was serving and volleying a ton, which we don’t see from him.
“If I am Zverev and someone comes out and in the first four or five games they are playing in a way that is completely different to what they usually do, I am going they don’t have confidence in their game and their stock offering vs my stock offering.
“Serving and volleying and hitting drop shots from weird spots is not something that he normally does. I get those adjustments if you are down a set or a set and a half, you have to change something to create some rhythm.
“But straight out of the gate. It almost felt like it was a desperate adjustment but it wasn’t an adjustment to anything, it was just the way that he was playing. I was kind of underwhelmed with the way that he played after being completely overwhelmed with the way he played against [Joao] Fonseca.
“I don’t have much sympathy for it [him being tired]. Many times I would play against the best players on earth for two weeks and lose to the best player and people would go ‘what is wrong with you?’”
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Where will Jakub Mensik be ranked after Roland Garros?
Although Mensik may not have played his best tennis in the semi-final match against Zverev, it has still been a breakthrough tournament for him.
After reaching his first Grand Slam semi-final in Paris, Mensik will now climb 10 places in the rankings up to world number 17.
Mensik is predicted to reach Grand Slam finals in the future, and he is even higher in the race in seventh position.
As he now turns his attention to the grass court season, Mensik is scheduled to play his next tournament at the Queen’s Club Championships.
Mensik will then look to match or even better his Roland Garros performance at Wimbledon, where he has never been past the third round before.
