Quick and clear: A summary of Saturday’s men’s events from Madrid. Lehecka didn’t make it into the match, how did the highlight of the night go?

On Saturday at the ATP Madrid Open, the stars of the previous week and the Czech number one were on show. The program culminated with a highlight. It was decided at the very end.

Jiri Lehecka

The Czech men’s number one did not get into the match at all. Lehečka lost to Russian Shevchenko twice 1::6. 46 minutes of the match were enough for the opponent to win 24 winning strokes. Shevchenko will play against his compatriot Medvedev, the tournament’s number two.

Last week’s stars

Seven days ago, Dutchman Van De Zandschulp failed in his second attempt to triumph in Munich, where he again reached the final. His Saturday match in Spain against Russia’s Karacev was interrupted by rain at 1:2.

Immediately after the break, the Dutchman lost his serve and did not return to the first set. When he didn’t use his serve to win it in the second set, a well-deserved penalty came, a 5::7 defeat and a farewell to the tournament.

It is Dusan Lajovic who continues to fight. The Serbian tennis player is a perfect replacement for the absent Djokovic. On Saturday, he took on Canada’s Auger-Aliassime.

And that was quite a fight. Lajovic defeated the tournament’s number seven only in the tiebreak of the third set, in which he used only the third match point (he had two more in the previous game). With his football preferences, the Barcelona fan probably won’t succeed on the courts in Madrid, but with tennis he has a relatively good chance.

The highlight of the evening

It’s no exaggeration, the evening match between Dominic Thiem and Stefanos Tsitsipas was rightly the expected highlight of Saturday’s programme. The Austrian, who is a former world number three, is trying to make a comeback after an injury and succeeded in the first set. The Greek is the current ATP number five and won the second set.

The third act brought plenty of interesting exchanges with a number of quality stopballs. Dominic Thiem made more errors but held his serve. From the seventh game of the deciding set, both tennis players showed uncompromising service and the match was heading towards a shortened game.

The situation on the court was changing by the moment. That’s the beauty of tennis. At 5:5, the big game came. The Austrian was serving. And for 12 minutes. During which his opponent had five break points. At this point, almost a match point. But he didn’t take them. Thiem held his serve and in a few moments, the tiebreak could have started.

The Austrian led in the shortened game, but the Greek gradually gained more confidence. Stefanos Tsitsipas made it to two match points and took the second one, after a Dominic Thiem attacking shot into the net.

The main hero of the evening was Tsitsipas of Greece. Thiem continues his journey back up. Though perhaps not as quickly as he would have liked. This year is sure to be an interesting one for him.

Source: ATP