The Challenger in Prostějov has the singles quarterfinals on the schedule. Who will the Czech tennis players face?

While one of the biggest tennis festivals is taking place at the Roland Garros complex in Paris, Prostějov is hosting the best-attended men’s tournament in the country this week. The 30-year-old event, part of the ATP Challenger Tour, has the singles semi-finals on Thursday. Who will feature in them?

The defending champion Vit Kopriva finished the UniCredit Czech Open 2023 in the first round.

Kopřiv’s opponent from last year’s final, Dalibor Svrčina, has had a more successful tournament so far, as he was one of the home quarter-finalists. He can look forward to the Czech derby after a successful three-set battle with Italian Luciano Darderi and the early termination of his semi-final match by Swedish opponent Elias Ymer.

The 20-year-old will face Jakub Mensik, a great talent of domestic tennis. At 17 years old, he is a wild card starter and has already managed to beat Nicholas David Ionel from Romania and Facundo Bagnis from Argentina quite easily thanks to his quality performances.

The upcoming clash between the two Czechs will be a match of ranked tennis players. Svrcina is currently ranked 232nd, with Mensik eight places below him.

Fans of white sport can also look forward to other interesting confrontations on the clay in Prostejov. The biggest favourite and the number one seed Jiri Lehecka, as the 41st player in the singles rankings, will face the 133rd, Slovakian Lukas Klein.

Lehečka has previously gone through Nick Hardt of the Dominican Republic and Jelle Sels of the Netherlands, while Klein has gone through Matheus Pucinelli de Almeida of Brazil and Emilio Nava of the USA. They will go into the Czech-Slovak clash with an even record from four matches.

One more Czech representative will play in the quarterfinals. Tomas Machac, who is 127th in the ATP rankings, will also enter the tournament as a favoured player. After victories over Portugal’s Frederic Ferreira Silva and the aforementioned Hungarian Valkusz, he will challenge Román Andrés Burruchaga. The young Argentine is 251 in the singles rankings.

Hynek Barton, for whom the participation in the main event after a successful qualification was a success, also fought for a place among the top eight on Wednesday in Hana. The world number 717 tennis player also added an unexpected win over the second ranked Italian Flavio Cobolli in the opening round. However, he did not face Dimitar Kuzmanov and lost to him 6::2, 3::6 and 1::6.

The Bulgarian will play for a semi-final place against the other Argentinian quarter-finalist Francisco Comesana. In this case it will be a duel of unseeded players, ranked 208th with 241. Thursday’s program at the Prostejov Challenger will start at 11 a.m. with a match between Mensik and Svrcina.

Source: ATP, UniCredit Czech Open