Las Vegas Aces star Jewel Loyd recently reacted on her Instagram story to Novak Djokovic losing to 19-year-old Jakub Mensik.
Loyd expressed her admiration for the young player as he showed poise in his performance.
“This kid is unreal!!!” Loyd captioned her story.
Loyd was recently involved in the WNBA blockbuster three-team trade deal. The deal included her trade from the Seattle Storm to the Las Vegas Aces. While with the Seattle Storm, Loyd won two championships and earned six All-Star selections.
In exchange, the Storm received the No. 2 pick in the 2025 WNBA Draft, along with Li Yueru and an Aces’ 2026 first-round pick.
The game between Mensik and tennis legend Novak Djokovic ended in the scores of 7-6 (7-4) and 7-6 (7-4). The game was held at the Hard Rock Stadium in Miami. It was delayed for six hours due to rain.
The win marked Mensik’s first ATP Masters 1000 title.
Novak Djokovic reflected on the loss saying, “Congratulations to Mensik and his team. Never really happy to lose, but he’s one of the very few players that I would be happier to lose to, to be honest,” Djokovic said. “I have seen him play when he was 15 or 16 and invited him, we had some training blocks together. He was training at my club in Belgrade, and to see his development and evolution is really great, amazing.”
Djokovic continued, “I could see back then already — three, four years ago — that he’s going to be one of the top players of the world,” he added. “I’m super glad that he’s using the potential that he has, because he’s got the complete game. Obviously, his serve is incredible, powerful, precise, wins a lot of free points with the first serve.”
“Unfortunately ended with a loss in the final, but I played some really good tennis up to today,” Djokovic said.
