Lehecka and co. rock. The Czechs have had a good first day in Indian Wells and they continue in full numbers!

The so-called fifth Grand Slam has begun. On the first day, a trio of Czechs, led by Jiri Lehecka, took to the courts in sunny Indian Wells. It was Lehečka, but also Noskova and Fruhvirtova managed to manage their opening matches and continue on. Fruhvirtova even had to turn the match around after a “canary”.

Ten Czech players made it to the main events of the prestigious tournament in Indian Wells. Jiří Lehečka was left alone in the men’s bracket after the withdrawal of his colleague Macháč, while the women’s section is full of Czech names.

The opening day of the BNP Paribas Open brought three Czech performances. In the women’s section, rising stars Linda Noskova and Linda Fruhvirtova took to the court. Both players have started this season with great results, thanks to which they have already reached the top 50 of the WTA rankings.

Noskova’s winning debut

First up was the native of Vsetín. Noskova was facing a relatively tough challenge in her debut in Indian Wells in the form of Romanian Begu, the thirty-eighth ranked tennis player in the world. The Czech tennis player did not have a good start to the match, quickly losing 1: 3.

However, she soon regained the lost serve and thanks to the subsequent sovereign success of both players on their serve, the first set went into a tiebreak.

In the shortened game both players played their best tennis. Thanks to a reversed set point, the eighteen-year-old Czech took the lead 1: 0 in the set.

A badly handled ending seemed to take the wind out of the Romanian’s sails and the second set was a clear-cut affair. Noskova even had four chances to hit her opponent with a “canary”, finally advancing after an hour and a half and 7::6, 6::1. In the second round, the Czech will face the top-seeded American Anisimova.

Fruhvirtova started with a “canary” and ended up winning

Fruhvirtova had the tougher shift. Still only 17 years old, the tennis player was in the position of a paper favourite in her match against Mayar Sherifova, even though only one place separates the two players on the rankings.

The Egyptian entered the match in a magnificent fashion. She did not let Fruhvirt do anything with her aggressive play and took the opening set in half an hour without losing a beat, 6: 0.

As it happens in women’s tennis, the scales gradually began to tip in favour of the Prague native, who stepped up her game. In the second game, she delivered a great shot that gave her a positive kick and the drama was on.

Suddenly Sherifova stopped winning easy points and Fruhvirtova levelled the set at 6: 2, so the match had to be decided in the third set.

The final set started very evenly, even Sherifova took the lead with a break, but with that her luck in the match ran out. The native of Prague took back her lost serve and won all the remaining games in the rest of the match. After two and a quarter hours, Fruhvirtova won 0::6, 6::2, 6::3.

Lehecka showed strong nerves and is looking forward to a rematch with Rublev

The last of the Czech representatives on the first day was Jiri Lehecka, the lone Czech in the men’s section. The Mladá Boleslav native entered the match with Frenchman Rinderknecht as a clear favourite.

Before the tournament, Lehečka had the opportunity to spar with names like the returning Monfils and Ruusuvuori, but his start was not very good. Rinderknech scored a break on his first game on serve.

Lehecka tightened up massively throughout the first set, in which he had to fight off two set points at 5::6. He turned them away and then managed the final tiebreak much better.

The second set had a similar story, only in reverse. Lehecka immediately got into a 3::0 break and everything pointed to a peaceful progress. In the end, the Czech had to work harder, as Rinderknech managed to come back to fight for the second set, but it was unsuccessful again.

After less than two hours of struggle, Michal Navratil’s ward managed to finish the second set 7:5. In the second round, Lehecka will face the sixth seed, Russian Andrey Rublev, whom he managed to defeat in three sets two weeks ago in Doha.

The remaining Czech players, led by Krejcikova, Kvitova and Pliskova, will be on the courts in California in the next few days.

Sources