A great success! Tennis Tournament of Champions will probably be with Czech participation this year

The end of the tennis season is fast approaching and tennis players are already looking forward to the last big tournaments. While the world’s top players will battle it out at the Tournament of Champions in Turin, the younger generation, without Carlos Alcaraz, will fight it out in another Italian city, in Milan at the Next Gen tournament.

The tournament, which is designed for the top-ranked tennis players in the under-21 rankings, will most likely have Czech representation for the first time in its history. At the moment, the 20-year-old Jiří Lehečka, a native of Mladá Boleslav, also holds a qualifying position.

If he succeeds, it would be another big milestone in his career and at the same time a bigger success for Czech men’s tennis in a long time. Lehečka will meet the world’s greatest talents at the tournament.

Who can qualify for the tournament?

Currently, the Spanish super-talent and current world number one Carlos Alcaraz is clearly leading the imaginary ranking of qualifiers, but he has already secured his place in the Tournament of Champions and therefore will not be included in the Next Gen. A great chance to become a two-time winner of this tournament is the local Italian Jannik Sinner, who managed to win in 2019.

Also in the running are fellow Italian Lorenzo Musetti, Denmark’s Holger Rune, Britain’s Jack Draper and American Brandon Nakashima, who yesterday won an ATP tournament in his home city of San Diego for the first time in his career and will peek into the top 50 of the rankings.

How is Lehecka doing?

The Czech national player is not having a very successful month. In August, he managed to win a challenger tournament in Liberec for the first time in his career, but since then Lehecka has not been able to get past the first round at ATP tournaments, last time falling surprisingly to a player from the fourth hundred of the rankings at a tournament in Sofia.

Lehecka’s closest pursuer is Taiwan-born Chun Hsin Tseng, who is 112 points behind him in the rankings. Tseng last fought at a tournament in Seoul, Korea, but finished in the second round at the hands of American Kovacevic.

If Tseng were to leapfrog Lehecka in the rankings, the young Czech talent would have to rely mainly on the organisers, who usually either stick to the rankings or invite someone of their choice. However, thanks to Alcaraz’s non-participation, the Czech footprint at the tournament is almost certain.

The Next Gen ATP Finals will be held from November 8 to 13 this year. We will look at the format and the innovations the ATP is testing in a separate article before the tournament starts.

Source: ATP, Livesport