Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard is in the semifinals at the Brisbane International, after defeating the Czech tennis player Jakub Mensik, another very young player with a great future, in the rising star challenge – in two sets 7-5 7-6.
Anyway it wasn’t so much the match that made the noise, but the moment of the handshake between the two young tennis players, at the end of the match.
The French player closed yet another match of this tournament – after those with Nick Kyrgios and Frances Tiafoe – with an impressive performance in his service games, with his opponent doing little on all three occasions in the face of the explosive force of his rival’s serve.
Mensik, probably also frustrated by this inability to respond to the French’s serve, approached the net after the match point, with a very slow pace and the handshake was nothing short of glacial.
Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard© X Atp Tour / Fair Use
As can be seen from the video published here at the end of the article, the face of the transalpine tennis player was the mirror of the progress of the match, remaining in fact astonished by such a reaction from the Czech player.
The power of Perricard’s serve, which was also the starting point for a reflection in recent days by Ivan Ljubicic – who has an important role in the French Tennis Federation – certainly leads to exasperation in the opposing players. As also happened with other great servers in the past, it is very complicated to break his serve so much so that Kyrgios, Tiafoe and Mensik have not succeeded.
But the behavior of the Czech world number 48 has provoked many reactions on the web: ranging from: “That was shameful of Mensik,” to “Mensik is a bad loser,” or: “Be better Mensik,” just to name a few of the most written.
Obviously now there is a lot of curiosity about what will come out of the match between two great big-servers like Mpetshi Perricard and Reilly Opelka.
Below the video of Mensik’s icy handshake:
GIO POWER 💥@MpetshiG eases past Mensik 7-5 7-6 to reach his third career semi-final #BrisbaneTennis pic.twitter.com/DXCgl077GY
— Tennis TV (@TennisTV) January 3, 2025
Tennis World USA