Tennis
The prestigious Indian Wells tournament is about to start. Who will Lehečka and Czech tennis players meet in the first round?
The Californian city of Indian Wells is traditionally the venue for one of the most important tournaments on the tennis calendar. The ATP 1000 and WTA 1000 event, which is often referred to as the “fifth Grand Slam”, will not be without Czech participation this year.
The Californian city of Indian Wells is traditionally the venue for one of the most important tournaments on the tennis calendar. The ATP 1000 and WTA 1000 event, which is often referred to as the “fifth Grand Slam”, will not be without Czech participation this year. Who will our representatives face in the first round of singles, the main competition of which will start from Wednesday at 8 pm CET?
In the men’s pool we will find only one tennis player from the Czech Republic, the 47th player of the world ranking Jiri Lehecka. He will start his participation in the BNP Paribas Open, as the official name of the event is, with a duel with Arthur Rinderknech.
If he advances past the Frenchman, who is currently ranked 72nd in the singles rankings, the young domestic tennis star would challenge Russia’s Andrey Rublyov. There are more names with the Czech flag in the starting list of the women’s part of the tournament, including two Lindas from the middle of the top 100 of the WTA rankings.
Both of them could expect evenly matched matches as they will face similarly ranked opponents. Noskova will take on Irina-Cameli Begu of Romania and Fruhvirtova will face Majar Sharif of Egypt.
Other Czech singles players will play on the hard courts in Indian Wells on Thursday. Kateřina Siniaková will play Germany’s Jule Niemeier, Markéta Vondroušová will play Canada’s Rebecca Marin and Karolína Muchová will play Julia Putintseva of Kazakhstan.
Four Czechs have a free draw in the opening round and thus automatic qualification to the second round. One of them is Marie Bouzkova, whose seeding could lead to a Czech derby if Vondrousova can manage her entry into the tournament.
Karolina Pliskova’s opponent will come from the Russian-American duel between Anna Kalinska and Alycia Parks. Petra Kvitova will face one of the local tennis players, namely Elizabeth Mandlikova or Alison Riske-Armitraj.
World No. 16 Barbora Krejcikova, who dominated the previous WTA 1000 level event in Dubai, is also waiting for her opponent. The native of Ivancice will face Ukraine’s Dajana Jastremska or Hungary’s Anna Bondarova.
The defending champions from last year are American Taylor Fritz and Poland’s Iga Świąteková. Live coverage of the men’s tournament is broadcast on Eurosport 2, while the women’s event can be watched on O2 TV Tennis.
Source: ATP, WTA
