{"id":95108,"date":"2026-01-05T07:42:34","date_gmt":"2026-01-05T12:42:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/?p=95108"},"modified":"2026-01-05T07:42:34","modified_gmt":"2026-01-05T12:42:34","slug":"united-cup-day-5-predictions-de-minaur-mensik","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/2026\/01\/05\/united-cup-day-5-predictions-de-minaur-mensik\/","title":{"rendered":"United Cup Day 5 Predictions Including Alex de Minaur vs Jakub Mensik"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Team Australia and Team Czech Republic won their opening ties at the United Cup. Whoever wins their tie on Day 5 will progress to the quarterfinals.\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/2025\/12\/15\/alex-de-minaur-2025-season-in-review-the-ultimate-gatekeeper\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">The consistent Alex de Minaur<\/a>, two-time Grand Slam champion Barbora Krejcikova, and <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/2025\/12\/30\/jakub-mensik-in-2025-an-future-star-to-watch\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">rising star Jakub Mensik<\/a> will all be in action. The other United Cup Day 5 matches, including Jasmine Paolini vs Leolia Jeanjean and Victoria Mboko vs Elise Mertens, are predicted in separate articles.<\/p>\n<h2>United Cup Day 5 Predictions<\/h2>\n<h4>Storm Hunter\/John-Patrick Smith vs Barbora Krejcikova\/Jakub Mensik<\/h4>\n<p>Head-to-head: First meeting<\/p>\n<p>Hunter and Smith are decent doubles players who have played the format regularly. However, Krejcikova&#8217;s presence will make the Czechs challenging to beat. She was part of a legendary doubles team with Katerina Siniakova, and her pivotal role in it has become underrated because of Siniakova&#8217;s continued success. Mensik also has a game suited to doubles, making Hunter and Smith&#8217;s task even harder.<br \/>\n<em>Prediction: Krejcikova\/Mensik in 2<\/em><\/p>\n<h4>Maya Joint vs Barbora Krejcikova<\/h4>\n<p>Head-to-head: First meeting<\/p>\n<p>19-year-old Joint made outstanding progress in 2025, winning two titles, but her solid, non-flashy style meant she slipped somewhat under the radar. Krejcikova often starts seasons slowly. Staying fit and avoiding further injuries might be her primary concern at the United Cup. <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/2024\/07\/12\/getting-to-know-barbora-krejcikova\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">The 2024 Wimbledon winner<\/a> played okay in her opening match against Malene Helgo. However, she will almost certainly need a better performance against Joint, and I think the Australian&#8217;s solidness can make the difference.<br \/>\n<em>Prediction: Joint in 3<\/em><\/p>\n<p><a  id=\"zCp_wPcNQVhF-1kYnJyDIQ\" class=\"gie-single\" href=\"https:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/2253437060\" target=\"_blank\" style=\"color:#a7a7a7;text-decoration:none;font-weight:normal !important;border:none;display:inline-block;\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><script>window.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'zCp_wPcNQVhF-1kYnJyDIQ',sig:'VzhxgHw6nZwCvWUxtza5hjMvnMow9DbBD2fazJhJlAs=',w:'594px',h:'397px',items:'2253437060',caption: true ,tld:'com',is360: false })});<\/script><script src='\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js' charset='utf-8' async><\/script><\/p>\n<h4>Alex de Minaur vs Jakub Mensik<\/h4>\n<p>Head-to-head: De Minaur 4-0 Mensik<\/p>\n<p>Three of de Minaur&#8217;s triumphs against Mensik occurred last year. The young star&#8217;s natural desire to be aggressive and a shot-maker is nullified by the 26-year-old&#8217;s speed and resilience. Although Mensik must have learned from past meetings, I doubt his first victory over de Minaur will come in this matchup. Despite Mensik beating Casper Ruud and de Minaur losing to the same opponent, this is a matchup that suits the Australian better.<br \/>\n<em>Prediction: de Minaur in 2<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>Main Photo Credit: Mike Frey-Imagn Images<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Team Australia and Team Czech Republic won their opening ties at the United Cup. Whoever wins their tie on Day 5 will progress to the quarterfinals.\u00a0The consistent Alex de Minaur, two-time Grand Slam champion Barbora Krejcikova, and rising star Jakub Mensik will all be in action. The other United Cup Day 5 matches, including Jasmine [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4708,"featured_media":74711,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[69],"tags":[564,15552,3976,15545,18805,19130,8803,43475,42392,42393,18490,18491,2373,2369,18442],"class_list":["post-95108","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-predictions","tag-alex-de-minaur","tag-alex-de-minaur-predictions","tag-barbora-krejcikova","tag-barbora-krejcikova-predictions","tag-jakub-mensik","tag-jakub-mensik-predictions","tag-john-patrick-smith","tag-john-patrick-smith-predictions","tag-maya-joint","tag-maya-joint-predictions","tag-storm-hunter","tag-storm-hunter-predictions","tag-tennis-picks","tag-tennis-predictions","tag-united-cup-predictions"],"modified_by":"Yesh Ginsburg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95108","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4708"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=95108"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95108\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":95122,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95108\/revisions\/95122"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/74711"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=95108"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=95108"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=95108"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}