Lehecka fought hard, but in the quarter-finals he was no match for Tsitsipas. Still, he can be proud of his performance

Jiri Lehecka is having the tournament of his life and after fantastic performances he has reached the quarter-finals of the Australian Open. There he met the world number four Stefanos Tsitsipas, but unfortunately he was already short.

At the Australian Open, Lehecka successively knocked out Coric, Eubanks, Norrie and Auger-Alliasim. But in the quarter-finals, he faced his biggest test yet, the world No. 4 Stefanos Tsitsipas.

The 21-year-old Czech may have been a little nervous and lost his serve at the first opportunity, but Tsitsipas then took the first set to a winning end and won 6-3.

But Lehecka came back in the second set and had five break points in the fourth game. However, he didn’t take advantage of any of them and the set remained even.

With no more break points, the set then went to a tiebreak, which Lehecek did not win at all. He lost two serves and was down 0::4. Tsitsipas eventually won the tiebreak comfortably 7::2 and the whole set 7-6.

The third game brought a similar outcome. Without much trouble, both players served until 3::3, but then Lehecka attacked and with the Greek serving he was already leading 0::40. But Tsitsipas got his head on straight, turned the score around and won the important game.

The score came to 5::4 after Tsitsipas let Lehecka get pushed on his serve and allowed the Greek to break. He gratefully accepted it and won the match 3-0 in sets 6-3, 7-6 and 6-4.

Still, Lehecka can be proud of his performance. He deservedly advanced to the quarterfinals of the Grand Slam, earned great respect from his opponents and the audience, and will surely jump from 71st place in the ATP rankings.

Source: Australian Open