Clinical Mensik outplays Shelton to power into Madrid Masters last 16

No 22 seed Jakub Mensik moved into the last 16 of the Madrid Masters by beating his UTS rival Ben Shelton, the No 12 seed, 6-1, 6-4 at the Caja Mágica.

Mensik has now recorded five top-20 wins in a row since his loss to Alex De Minaur in Rotterdam back in February. During that time, he has surged up the rankings having clinched his maiden ATP title at the prestigious 1000-level Miami Open last month.

The Mountain, meanwhile, was uncharacteristically out of sorts, with unforced errors flowing from racquet as he struggled to find solutions to Mensik’s clinical power and precision.

The Czech dominated the opening set, breaking three times without reply to move into a much deserved one-set lead. At the end of that first set, Shelton recorded13 unforced errors to only three winners, compared with Mensik’s much tidier stats of nine winners to seven unforced errors.

A single break of serve was all Mensik needed to dispatch an under-par Shelton, who failed to generate a single break point opportunity.