Tennis
Fantastic shot! With this great hit at the net, Jiri Lehecka won the biggest title of his career
Jiří Lehečka won his biggest title in his career so far on Saturday in the early morning hours. He is in the best mood ahead of the Australian Open, where he defends last year’s quarter-final. However, it didn’t take much for his opponent to rejoice in winning the valuable title.
Jiri Lehecka won his biggest title in his career so far on Saturday in the early morning hours. He is in the best mood ahead of the Australian Open, where he defends last year’s quarter-final. However, it didn’t take much for his opponent to rejoice in winning the valuable title.
The journey through the tournament by Lehecka
Jiri Lehecka went through to the final of the tournament in Adelaide like a knife through butter. His only minor setback came against Dusan Lajovic in the semi-finals. However, he defeated the experienced Serb after more than two hours of fighting in sets 7:5, 4:6 and 6:3.
Afterwards he scored very valuable scalps of Nicolas Jarry and Sebastian Korda. Although both players were better ranked on the ATP ranking, the Czech representative managed to win both fights in two sets. He was especially good against Korda, who he allowed only three games in the whole duel.
In Saturday’s final he faced Jack Draper. The young British tennis player also defeated some very big names in Auckland, such as Miomir Kecmanovic, Tommy Paul and Alexander Bublik.
The defining moment?
The opening final set was better handled by Draper, who won 6: 4. He did not even offer his opponent a single breakball opportunity. But the decisive moment of the match seemed to come in the ninth game of the second set, when Lehecka was already down 0:30 on his serve.
The Czech republic native got to the net and found a great answer to his opponent’s break. If he had not succeeded, the score would have been 0:40 and Jack Draper would have been very close to winning the title.
But that didn’t happen, and in the next game Draper lost his serve to tie the set at 1:1. At the very beginning of the deciding set, the Great Britain’s representative lost his serve again and the fate of the match was already decided.
Lehecka won his first ATP title. In addition, he will also reach a new ranking high on Monday, moving up to 23rd position with 1,555 points.
It will be very interesting to see if he will be able to confirm his great form at the Australian Open, where he will defend his quarter-final appearance last year. In the first round he will challenge Spain’s Zapata Miralles.
Source: X – Tennis TV, ATP
