“A stiff neck which didn’t allow me to do some movements”: Mensik’s physical restriction in his semi-final defeat

Jakub Mensik pointed to a stiff neck that limited his movement during his Roland-Garros semi-final loss to Alexander Zverev, while stressing it was nothing serious.

The 20-year-old Czech, beaten in four sets, said his main problem was rhythm – that Zverev gave him nothing to work with over the opening two sets. “Sasha is the guy who doesn’t give you any rhythm,” Mensik said. “You feel like you’re hitting the wall.” Struggling to find his range, he said, cost him energy.

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But he also described a physical issue late on. “I felt my left [side] was getting a little bit stiffer,” Mensik said. He was keen to play it down: it was not, he stressed, “an injury or something that will get me out for a long time,” but rather “a stiff neck which didn’t allow me to do some movements” in the moment.

Mensil had, earlier in the fortnight, managed a left-leg scare against João Fonseca, which he also described as a tight muscle.