Jannik Sinner stunned by sensational Jakub Mensik in Doha quarter-finals

Jannik Sinner experienced a shocking loss in the quarter-finals of the 2026 Qatar Open in Doha, losing to Jakub Mensik.

Like every time when Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz appear in the same draw, the fans anticipated them to meet in the final once again at the ATP 500 event in Doha. Alcaraz, as the first seed, got to the semi-finals despite having to battle past Karen Khachanov.

After Alcaraz's three-set battle, his rival Sinner stepped onto the court. The Italian knew that the man standing on the opposite side of the net would not be an easy obstacle to clear. At the end of the day, Mensik is last year's Miami Open champion.

On top of that, the two have never met before, so it was the first time Sinner had to problem-solve against the big-serving Czech. However, early in the match, Sinner had four break points on his opponent's serve, and it appeared that he could be in control from the first minutes of the match.

But Mensik saved all of those, and even created his own break point opportunity up 4-3. Had the Czech converted his chance, he would have led 5-3 and served for the first set. Since that didn't happen, a tie-break had to decide the first-set winner.

Mensik started better, breaking Sinner's serve at the start of the tie-break. After nine points were played, the Czech player led 6-3, with three set points. He lost the same lead in the first-set tie-break of his first-round match in Doha against Jan Choinski, when the British player turned a 3-6 deficit into an 8-6 victory in the tie-break.

This time, Mensik didn't make the same mistakes that led him to lose the tie-break against Choinski. Quite the opposite. He converted his first set point, mini-breaking Sinner once more to win the tie-break 7-3.

Mensik then started well in the second set too. He had a break point in the first game, but after Sinner saved it, the world No. 2 player started dominating on the court. Sinner broke his opponent's serve twice, both times with Mensik failing to win a single point. Thanks to those breaks, the four-time major winner won the second set 6-2.

It appeared that Sinner was back in control once again, but he had to face a break point in the opening game of the third set as well. But this time around, he wasn't able to avoid being broken, as Mensik sprinted into a 1-0 lead.

The Czech player then saved a break point himself, and after a great serving performance, he led 5-3. With Sinner serving, the Italian had a simple task. Win his serve to force Mensik to serve the match out.

But the Czech player was in no mood to wait around for his chance. He created a match point on Sinner's serve and converted it to win the match 7-6(3), 2-6, 6-3, securing the Qatar Open semi-finals. His next opponent will be Arthur Fils.