With Lionel Messi watching, Novak Djokovic advances to Miami Open final to face upstart Jakub Mensik

MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. (AP) — Novak Djokovic had some company for another Miami Open victory.

With Lionel Messi watching, Djokovic cruised into the Miami Open final by routing 14th-seeded Grigor Dimitrov 6-2, 6-3 on Friday at Hard Rock Stadium.

The fourth-seeded Djokovic will try for a seventh Miami Open title on Sunday against unseeded 19-year-old upstart Jakub Mensik, who won a thriller decided by a third-set tiebreaker over No. 3 seed Taylor Fritz in Friday's other semifinal, 7-6 (7-4), 4-6, 7-6 (7-4).

The 37-year-old Djokovic, who won six times at the tournament’s previous venue at Key Biscayne, also is going for his 100th professional title.

He has been out of form this year, starting with an injury retirement at the Australian Open in January. Earlier this month, he lost his first match at Indian Wells to Botic van de Zandschulp.

In his on-court interview, Djokovic acknowledged the presence of Messi, who plays for Major League Soccer’s Inter Miami, calling him “King Leo."

Djokovic said Messi visited the locker room with his wife and children and they “exchanged gifts." Djokovic has seen Messi play live before but this was the first time the soccer great watched him.

“Obviously, it’s a thrill to have his whole family,’’ Djokovic said. “It’s a huge honor. He’s such a great athlete, not just a football player. His impact on the world of sports in the last 20 years has been immense.

“To have him watch me live brings me great joy and excitement and also a little pressure. It’s definitely different when he brings his family. I was touched by that."

The match was disrupted during the third game when a fan was removed by security. The chair umpire came down to the court and called for security as he walked toward the stands.

Dimitrov had jawed with the fan and came over to the sideline to point out the heckler to the umpire.

“It’s just heckling, it’s fine,’’ Dimitrov said. “I’m a very calm guy overall. I don’t pick any fights but don’t trigger me.’’

Dimitrov eliminated Francisco Cerundulo in the quarters. He stayed on the court for 25 minutes after the victory, sitting in a wheelchair because of dizziness. He was helped off by tournament medical personnel and canceled his post-match news conference.

Dimitrov said he was given lots of water and ice but added “I don’t have a recollection of exactly what happened. We’re putting our bodies through so much. It’s one of those matches where you have to carry me out of the court somehow.’’

Djokovic was broken by Dimitrov in the first game, but he quickly settled down and closed out the first set in 32 minutes.

The men’s leader with 24 Grand Slam titles made 87% of his first serves, missing just six all match on a breezy day. He also committed only five unforced errors in the 70-minute match.

“Now I know how it feels to be (John) Isner and (Reilly) Opelka,’’ Djokovic said of two serving behemoths. “Maybe my serve has been a bit underrated."

The Serbian improved to 13-1 against Dimitrov in his career. The Bulgarian pulled out the ultimate superlative.

“He wears confidence like a stain on your shirt,’’ Dimitrov said. “It’s beautiful to see. Only a few athletes on Earth possess that quality.’’

Mensik hasn’t been to an ATP 1,000-point final and came in to the Miami Open ranked 54th.

He showed nerves of steel against Fritz at 4-4 in the deciding tiebreaker, winning the last three points.

Mensik, who didn’t post a service break all match, blasted a backhand winner down the line for 5-4. Fritz hit a forehand long off a 20-shot rally and punched a forehand in the net on double match point to end the two hour and 25-minute nightcard.

Mensik shook hands with Messi before the match. “I didn’t wash my hands before I stepped on the court," Mensik said.

Mensik credits Djokovic as the reason he picked up tennis. He lost to Djokovic in Shanghai Masters in a three-setter last October. Djokovic will have 18 years on his opponent.

“It feels incredible, unbelievable (to play him),’’ Mensik said. “It was a dream to play against him in Shanghai. I’m a better player now than I was in Shanghai.’’

AP tennis: https://apnews.com/hub/tennis

Taylor Fritz gestures after losing a point against Jakub Mensik of the Czech Rebublic during a semifinal match at the Miami Open tennis tournament, Friday, March 28, 2025, in Miami Gardens, Fla. (AP Photo/Marta Lavandier)

Taylor Fritz returns a hit to Jakub Mensik of the Czech Republic during a semifinal match at the Miami Open tennis tournament, Friday, March 28, 2025, in Miami Gardens, Fla. (AP Photo/Marta Lavandier)

Jakub Mensik of the Czech Republic serves to Taylor Fritz during a semifinal match at the Miami Open tennis tournament, Friday, March 28, 2025, in Miami Gardens, Fla. (AP Photo/Marta Lavandier)

Jakub Mensik of the Czech Republic celebrates after defeating Taylor Fritz during a semifinal match at the Miami Open tennis tournament, Friday, March 28, 2025, in Miami Gardens, Fla. (AP Photo/Marta Lavandier)

Soccer star Lionel Messi, top, poses for selfies with fans at the end of a semifinal match between Novak Djokovic, of Serbia, and Grigor Dimitrov, of Bulgaria, at the Miami Open tennis tournament, Friday, March 28, 2025, in Miami Gardens, Fla. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)

Grigor Dimitrov, of Bulgaria, serves during his semifinal match against Novak Djokovic, of Serbia, at the Miami Open tennis tournament, Friday, March 28, 2025, in Miami Gardens, Fla. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)

Soccer star Lionel Messi, center, sits with his wife Antonela Roccuzzo, left, and their three sons, one of whom is seen at right, as they watch a semifinal match between Novak Djokovic, of Serbia, and Grigor Dimitrov, of Bulgaria, at the Miami Open tennis tournament, Friday, March 28, 2025, in Miami Gardens, Fla. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)

Novak Djokovic, of Serbia, plays a shot in his semifinal match against Grigor Dimitrov, of Bulgaria, at the Miami Open tennis tournament, Friday, March 28, 2025, in Miami Gardens, Fla. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)

Novak Djokovic, of Serbia, mimes playing a violin with his racket as he celebrates winning his semifinal match against Grigor Dimitrov, of Bulgaria, at the Miami Open tennis tournament, Friday, March 28, 2025, in Miami Gardens, Fla. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)

Grigor Dimitrov, of Bulgaria, plays a shot in his semifinal match against Novak Djokovic, of Serbia, at the Miami Open tennis tournament, Friday, March 28, 2025, in Miami Gardens, Fla. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)

Novak Djokovic, of Serbia, plays a shot in his semifinal match against Grigor Dimitrov, of Bulgaria, at the Miami Open tennis tournament, Friday, March 28, 2025, in Miami Gardens, Fla. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)

Novak Djokovic, of Serbia, salutes the crowd after winning his semifinal match against Grigor Dimitrov, of Bulgaria, at the Miami Open tennis tournament, Friday, March 28, 2025, in Miami Gardens, Fla. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)

President Donald Trump says Wednesday will be “Liberation Day” — when he plans to roll out a set of tariffs he promises will free the United States from foreign goods.

The details of Trump’s next round of import taxes are still sketchy. Most economic analyses say average U.S. families would have to absorb the cost of his tariffs in the form of higher prices and lower incomes. But an undeterred Trump is inviting CEOs to the White House to say they're investing hundreds of billions of dollars in new projects to avoid the import taxes.

Here's the latest:

Press secretary Karoline Leavitt said National Security Adviser Mike Waltz continues to have Trump’s confidence and that it was done discussing the embarrassing matter of senior officials communicating about plans for an airstrike against the Houthis in Yemen on a commercial messaging app.

“This case has been closed here at the White House as far as we are concerned,” Leavitt said.

Waltz added a journalist to the sensitive group chat on the platform Signal, where Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth divulged operational details on the strike and Vice President JD Vance discussed his reservations about the operation.

Leavitt said “there have been steps made to ensure that something like that can, obviously, not happen again,” but did not provide any clarity on what those steps were. Lawmakers on Capitol Hill have called for an investigation into the sensitive conversation playing out on Signal.

He’ll be joined in the Rose Garden by his Cabinet, press secretary Karoline Leavitt announced Monday.

Leavitt said Trump believes “it’s time for reciprocity” but said the details of the announcement — which have roiled the financial markets — are up to Trump to announce. She said Trump had been presented with several proposals by his advisers but the president would make a final decision and, right now, Trump wasn’t contemplating any country-wide exemptions from the tariffs.

The State Department said in a statement Monday that they were removed Sunday night and that the group included murderers and rapists.

The statement didn’t give nationalities, but the office of El Salvador President Nayib Bukele said Salvadorans and Venezuelans were among the prisoners.

The men were transported to El Salvador’s maximum security prison, where they changed into the standard white T-shirts and shorts and had their heads shaved. Hundreds of migrants facing deportation were sent there earlier this month.

The Trump administration is pulling back a final round of federal pandemic aid from schools across the country, saying the money wasn’t being spent on academic recovery.

States were notified Friday that the Education Department will not disburse the remainder of the federal aid passed by Congress, although the vast majority has already been sent to schools.

The department didn’t say how much money is left of the total $189 billion approved by Congress, though officials said it’s in the billions. As of Feb. 19, the department said there was $4.4 billion left, or about 2%.

A senior department official said the money was being misused on costs including astroturf fields and “sets of bouncy glow balls.” The agency said it will consider requests for individual projects related to pandemic recovery.

Schools were supposed to spend the last of the relief by January, but the Biden administration allowed schools to request extensions.

The Council of Chief State School Officers urged the department to rethink the decision, saying schools have already spent the money for pandemic recovery efforts and were promised reimbursement.

The U.S. Institute of Peace is a congressionally created and funded think tank targeted by President Trump for closure.

Two board members of the institute have authorized replacing its temporary president with Nate Cavanaugh, the filing says. They ordered him, it says, to transfer the institute’s property to the General Services Administration, the federal government’s real estate manager, which is terminating hundreds of leases at the behest of Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency.

The court filing asks U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell in Washington to stop the action or schedule a status conference to address the issues as soon as “practicable.”

The White House didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

The action follows a Friday night mass firing of nearly all of the institute’s 300 employees.

▶ Read more about DOGE and the U.S. Institute of Peace

President Trump’s preferred candidate for Wisconsin Supreme Court and his Democratic-backed challenger made a final blitz across the state Monday, the day before voting concludes in a race where early turnout has surged and spending is nearing $100 million.

Billionaire Elon Musk, a top Trump adviser, held a rally in Green Bay on Sunday night to push for the election of Brad Schimel, a Waukesha County judge and former Republican attorney general. He faces Susan Crawford, a Dane County judge and former attorney who fought for abortion rights and to protect union power.

Liberals currently hold a 4-3 advantage on the court, but the retirement of a liberal justice this year put the ideological balance in play. The court in battleground Wisconsin is expected to rule on abortion rights, congressional redistricting, union power and voting regulations in the coming years.

▶ Read more about the Wisconsin Supreme Court race

The White House Correspondents Association says it canceled her from performing at its annual dinner because it wants to refocus the event on journalistic excellence.

The association’s announcement over the weekend made no mention of Ruffin’s appearance on a podcast by the Daily Beast last week in which she referred to the Trump administration as “kind of a bunch of murderers.”

Ruffin, a writer for NBC’s Seth Meyers and formerly a host of a Peacock talk show, also said she wouldn’t try to make sure her jokes would target politicians of different stripes, as she was told by the correspondents’ association.

Her comments drew angry responses from the Trump administration. The president isn’t expected to attend the April event, which in past years has featured comics such as Stephen Colbert and Colin Jost. The last time a comedian did not perform at the dinner was in 2019, when historian Ron Chernow spoke.

▶ Read more about Amber Ruffin and the White House correspondents’ dinner

Tocorón once had it all. A nightclub, swimming pools, tigers, a lavish suite and plenty of food. This wasn’t a Las Vegas-style resort, but it felt like it for some of the thousands who until recently lived in luxury in this sprawling prison in northern Venezuela.

Here, between parties, concerts and weeks-long visits from wives and children, is the birthplace of the Tren de Aragua, a dangerous gang that has gained global notoriety after Trump put it at the center of his anti-immigrant narrative.

But kidnappings, extorsion and other crimes were planned, ordered or committed from this prison long before Trump’s rhetoric.

The tiny, impoverished town where the Aragua Penitentiary Center is used to bustle with residents selling food, renting phone chargers and storing bags for prison visitors. Now, the prison is back under government control, and streets in the town, also called Tocorón, are mostly deserted.

▶ Read more about the Tren de Aragua gang

U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi on Monday instructed the Justice Department to dismiss the lawsuit. Georgia Republican lawmakers passed the sweeping election overhaul in the wake of Trump’s 2020 election loss in the state.

The lawsuit, filed in June 2021 under former President Joe Biden, alleged the Georgia law was intended to deny Black voters equal access to the ballot. Bondi said the Biden administration was pushing “false claims of suppression.”

“Georgians deserve secure elections, not fabricated claims of false voter suppression meant to divide us,” she said.

The law was part of a trend of Republican-backed measures that tightened rules around voting, passed in the months after Trump lost his reelection bid to Biden, claiming without evidence that voter fraud cost him victory.

▶ Read more about Georgia’s election law

The letter — released Monday — was penned by a group from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, which was created in 1863 to provide expert guidance to the government.

Up to 19 Nobel laureates signed Monday’s letter, which described how the administration is slashing funding for scientific agencies, terminating grants to scientists, defunding their laboratories and hampering international scientific collaboration. Those moves will increasingly put the United States at a disadvantage against other countries, the letter predicted.

The signees said they’re speaking up for colleagues who “have kept silent to avoid antagonizing the administration and jeopardizing their funding.”

On the campaign trail, Trump used contentiousness around transgender people’s access to sports and bathrooms to fire up conservative voters and sway undecideds. And in his first months back in office, Trump has pushed the issue further, erasing mention of transgender people on government websites and passports and trying to remove them from the military.

For transgender people and their allies — along with several judges who’ve ruled against Trump in response to legal challenges — it’s a matter of civil rights for a small group. But many Americans believe those rights had grown too expansive.

Trump’s spotlight is giving Monday’s Transgender Day of Visibility a different tenor this year.

“What he wants is to scare us into being invisible again,” said Rachel Crandall Crocker, the executive director of Transgender Michigan who organized the first Day of Visibility 16 years ago. “We have to show him we won’t go back.”

▶ Read more about Transgender Day of Visibility

On Wall Street, the S&P 500 was down 1.3% following one of its worst losses of the past couple of years Friday. It’s on track to finish the first three months of the year with a loss of 6.4%, which would make this its worst quarter in nearly three years.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 295 points, or 0.7%, as of 9:35 a.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 2.3% lower.

The U.S. stock market’s drops followed a sell-off that spanned the world earlier Monday as worries build that tariffs coming Wednesday from Trump will worsen inflation and grind down growth for economies. Trump has said he’s plowing ahead in part because he wants more manufacturing jobs back in the United States.

In Japan, the Nikkei 225 index dropped 4%. South Korea’s Kospi sank 3%, and France’s CAC 40 fell 1.5%.

▶ Read more about the financial markets

Calls from the U.S. to Roustan Hockey headquarters in Canada in recent weeks have been anything but routine, as bulk orders of name-brand sticks have suddenly become complicated conversations.

“These customers want to know: When their orders ship, will they have to pay an additional 25% tariff? And we respond by saying, ’Well, right now we don’t know, so they postpone their order or cancel their order because they want to know before they order what the cost is going to be,” said Graeme Roustan, who owns the company that makes and sells more than 100,000 hockey sticks annually to the U.S. market.

The prospect of 25% tariffs by Trump on Canadian imports, currently paused for some goods but facing full implementation Wednesday, has caused headaches if not havoc throughout the commercial ecosystem. The sports equipment industry is certainly no exception, with so many of the products manufactured for sports -loving Americans outside the U.S.

▶ Read more about the effects of possible tariffs on the price of sporting goods

U.S. immigration officials are asking the public and federal agencies to comment on a proposal to collect social media handles from people applying for benefits such as green cards or citizenship, to comply with an executive order from Trump.

The March 5 notice raised alarms from immigration and free speech advocates because it appears to expand the government’s reach in social media surveillance to people already vetted and in the U.S. legally, such as asylum seekers, green card and citizenship applicants – and not just those applying to enter the country. That said, social media monitoring by immigration officials has been a practice for over a decade, since at least the second Obama administration and ramping up under Trump’s first term.

▶ Read more about what the new proposal means and how it might expand social media surveillance

Elon Musk gave out $1 million checks on Sunday to two Wisconsin voters, declaring them spokespeople for his political group, ahead of a Wisconsin Supreme Court election that the tech billionaire cast as critical to President Donald Trump’s agenda and “the future of civilization.”

Musk and groups he supports have spent more than $20 million to help conservative favorite Brad Schimel in Tuesday’s race, which will determine the ideological makeup of a court likely to decide key issues in a perennial battleground state.

A unanimous state Supreme Court on Sunday refused to hear a last-minute attempt by the state’s Democratic attorney general to stop Musk from handing over the checks to two voters, a ruling that came just minutes before the planned start of the rally.

Two lower courts had already rejected the legal challenge by Democrat Josh Kaul, who argues that Musk’s offer violates a state law.

▶ Read more about Musk in Wisconsin

The group of Democrats, most of whom serve as their state’s top election official, is telling Congress the legislative proposal to add a proof of citizenship requirement when registering to vote could disenfranchise voters and upend election administration.

On Monday, the House Rules Committee is expected to consider the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act, known as the SAVE Act, which would require proof of citizenship to register to vote. The letter signed by 15 secretaries of state was sent Friday.

Voting by noncitizens is rare, but Republicans say any instances undermine public confidence. Last week, President Trump directed, among other things, an update to the federal voter registration form to require proof of citizenship. Legal challenges are expected.

In the letter, Democrats say it’s the “job of election officials to verify the eligibility of citizens to cast a ballot, not the job of citizens to convince the government that they are eligible to exercise their right to vote.”

Trump says Wednesday will be “Liberation Day” — a moment when he plans to roll out a set of tariffs that he promises will free the United States from foreign goods.

The details of Trump’s next round of import taxes are still sketchy. Most economic analyses say average U.S. families would have to absorb the cost of his tariffs in the form of higher prices and lower incomes. But an undeterred Trump is inviting CEOs to the White House to say they are investing hundreds of billions of dollars in new projects to avoid the import taxes.

It is also possible that the tariffs are short-lived if Trump feels he can cut a deal after imposing them.

“I’m certainly open to it, if we can do something,” Trump told reporters. “We’ll get something for it.”

At stake are family budgets, America’s prominence as the world’s leading financial power and the structure of the global economy.

▶ Read more about what you should know regarding the impending trade penalties

Trump will sign executive orders twice today, first at 1 p.m. ET and again at 5:30 p.m. ET, according to the White House.

Immigration remains a strength for Trump, but his handling of tariffs is getting more negative feedback, according to a poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.

About half of U.S. adults approve of Trump’s approach to immigration, the survey shows, but only about 4 in 10 have a positive view of the way he’s handling the economy and trade negotiations.

The poll indicates that many Americans are still on board with Trump’s efforts to ramp up deportations and restrict immigration. But it also suggests that his threats to impose tariffs might be erasing his advantage on another issue that he made central to his winning 2024 campaign.

Views of Trump’s job performance overall are more negative than positive, the survey found. About 4 in 10 U.S. adults approve of the way Trump is handling his job as president, and more than half disapprove.

▶ Read more about the findings from the poll

Trump said Sunday that “I’m not joking” about trying to serve a third term, the clearest indication he is considering ways to breach a constitutional barrier against continuing to lead the country after his second term ends at the beginning of 2029.

“There are methods which you could do it,” Trump said in a telephone interview with NBC News from Mar-a-Lago, his private club.

He elaborated later to reporters on Air Force One from Florida to Washington that “I have had more people ask me to have a third term, which in a way is a fourth term because the other election, the 2020 election was totally rigged.” Trump lost that election to Democrat Joe Biden.

Still, Trump added: “I don’t want to talk about a third term now because no matter how you look at it, we’ve got a long time to go.”

▶ Read more about Trump’s comments on a third term

President Donald Trump talks to reporters as he walks on the South Lawn of the White House, in Washington, Sunday, March 30, 2025. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)

President Donald Trump walks down the stairs of Air Force One upon his arrival at Joint Base Andrews, Md., Sunday, March 30, 2025. (AP Photo/Luis M. Alvarez)