VIDEO: Lehečka was almost in the semifinals! This is how close Tsitsipas was from disqualification

Jiri Lehecka fought hard in the Australian Open quarter-finals against Stefanos Tsitsipas, but he was not able to beat the fourth player in the world and lost 0-3 in sets. Still, he was literally one meter away from advancing to the semifinals.

Lehecka had the tournament of his life in Melbourne. He reached the quarterfinals, knocking out Félix Auger-Alliasim and Cameron Norrie.

But among the top eight, he faced his toughest test yet. Stefanos Tsitsipas is the fourth player on the ATP rankings and if he has a day, he is extremely difficult to beat.

It’s just that the Greek tennis player is a known troublemaker. He often gets into disputes with the rules, whether for his behaviour on court or illicit coaching from his dad Apostolos.

Against Lehecek, he took a 2-0 lead in sets and a 4:3 lead in games when the Czech was serving in the third set. The 21-year-old talent played a great forehand winner that really got on Tsitsipas’ nerves.

The Greek tennis player’s ball bounced off the wall right into his path and he angrily hit it back. By that point, however, the serve had already started to run and Tsitsipas just missed it.

“He was very lucky. If the picker had hit him, he’s already going to go lend a hand to the net as a loser. You can’t do that, you have to be attentive. It was dangerous,” American commentator Jim Courier did not understand the 24-year-old Greek’s behaviour.

Indeed, little was missing and Tsitsipas was disqualified, which would have sent Lehecka automatically to the semifinals. The umpire would have had no choice.

“I saw the picker. I’m a professional tennis player, of course I wasn’t aiming at him. I just hit the ball into the wall, the collector was still quite far away in my opinion. I would have had to shoot really hard to hit him.

But of course it’s not nice to do something like that, even if I didn’t hit the tennis ball with much force. I shouldn’t have done it anyway, I’m not proud of myself for that, but I was overcome with frustration,” Tsitsipas explained after the match.

Source: Twitter, Australian Open