Lehecka defeated his Finnish opponent and advanced to the second round in Monte Carlo

The tennis season currently has its clay court part on the agenda. Jiri Lehecka was supposed to face the winner of the tournament in Houston, Frances Tiafoe, in the first round of the Monte-Carlo Masters. However, he withdrew and the Czech talent faced Emil Ruusuvuori, who came through the qualifying as a lucky loser. The Czech tennis player won 6::1 and 7::5.

The Finn, who had beaten Lehecka in Metis and Stockholm last year, had a slight advantage in the match. The last time, however, the Czech was the winner was on 22 February in Doha after winning 6: 2 and 7: 6.

On the Monaco clay court, the opening day of play on Tuesday was a clash between two evenly-ranked players. Lehecek is ranked 42nd in the singles rankings, while Ruusuvuori is four places above him.

The twenty-one-year-old Czech tennis player took the first serve from his three years older opponent and soon led 3:0. The Finnish number one was not doing well after that and lost another serve. Although it was not a “canary” in the end, Lehecek’s unequivocal 6:1 partial victory after half an hour of play was.

Ruusuvuori took a break point early in the second game to take a 2:0 lead. However, the top-ranked representative of domestic tennis managed to equalize at 2::2.

The native of Helsinki, however, improved his performance compared to the opening set and built a promising 5:2 lead. However, he also lost it and then the player from Kněžmost in the Central Bohemia region completed the turnaround. After the fourth match point he won 7::5.

Jiří Lehečka will challenge the winner of the match between Ben Shelton and Grigor Dimitrov in the second round in Monte Carlo. The defending champion is Stefanos Tsitsipas, who will start his appearance in Monaco with a duel with Benjamin Bonzi.

The most successful player at the prestigious event is Rafael Nadal, who has won a total of eleven titles. However, he has not played a match since the Australian Open this year due to injury and will not be competing at the 2023 Rolex Monte-Carlo Masters.

Source: ATP, Eurosport 2