ATP DUBAI – Both Czech representatives managed to enter the ATP 500 tournament in Dubai in three-set duels. Jiří Lehečka (22) started with a 6:4, 3:6, 7:5 win over ten years older Hungarian Márton Fucsovics (32) and secured a fight against the fresh champion from Doha, Karen Chačanov (27). Jakub Menšík (18), three days after his failure in the final in the capital of Qatar, won a place among the top sixteen after a turn against two-time semi-finalist Born Čoric from Croatia (27), whom he defeated only after averting a match point and almost three hours of fighting in the tie-break of the deciding set.
Lehečka – Fucsovics 6:4, 3:6, 7:5
Jiří Lehečka won his first ATP title at the beginning of the year in Adelaide, Australia, but the next three individual events ended in failure for him. He was eliminated twice after unexpected defeats to Alex Michelsen and Arthur Rinderknech, and two weeks ago in Rotterdam he failed his opening match for the first time in the season, although he had three match points against TOP 10 player Hubert Hurkacz.
In Dubai, however, he overpowered his first opponent again. While he did not hold the lead against Alexander Zverev on his debut in the United Arab Emirates last year, this time he managed a three-set battle. He defeated Hungarian Márton Fucsovics 6:4, 3:6, 7:5 in the qualifying round.
Statistics of the match Jiří Lehečka – Márton Fucsovics (@ Livesport)
Lehečka decided both of his won sets thanks to a break at the end. In the first set, he broke the serve of the 77th tennis player in the world with a clear game at 5:4 and then finished the set without losing a point on his own serve. In the third set, the twenty-two-year-old Czech tennis player squandered a 3-0 lead, but he was able to finish again. In the end, he won eight fifteens in a row and closed the match with the third break.
Lehečka, the 36th player in the world, will play in the quarter-finals against world number 15 Karen Chačanov, with whom he did not even play a set in Miami and Vienna last year and played only ten games together.
The 27-year-old Russian, who overpowered Jakub Menšík in the finals in Doha, Qatar on Sunday, won 6:2, 6:3 against the 19-year-old French lucky loser Luca Van Assch in the first round and claimed his fifth win in a row.
Karen keeps the wins coming @karenkhachanov extends his unbeaten streak to 5 with a 6-2 6-3 win over Van Assche! #DDFTennis pic.twitter.com/J9JKRLXLuN
— Tennis TV (@TennisTV) February 27, 2024
Menšík – Čorič 4:6, 6:3, 7:6
Jakub Menšík started in Dubai just three days after the defeat in the final in Doha and once again confirmed his great form. Against the 31st player in the world and semi-finalist from 2015 and 2019, Born Čoric, he lost a promising first set and used only 2 out of 14 break points, but he turned the tide and won 4:6, 6:3, 7 after averting a match point and almost three hours of fighting :6.
Mensik on a MISSION
The rise of @mensik_jakub_ continues as he saves a match point and defeats Coric 4-6 6-3 7-6!
#DDFTennis pic.twitter.com/SzAEs5NyMG
— Tennis TV (@TennisTV) February 27, 2024
Menšík was the first to get to break points, but he didn’t use any of the three chances at 4:3 and 40:0 and immediately lost his serve. And when he didn’t convert two more break points even in the 10th game, he lost the first set. At the beginning of the second set, after a fight, he held serve, broke a streak of three lost games, and when he converted a break chance on the ninth attempt overall, he forced the third act.
In it, the young Czech jumped to a 3:1 lead and held the lead for a long time. But when he had a match point on his serve in the 10th game, he ended the exchange with a shot to the tape. The tie-break had to be decided, in which Menšík lost the lead 4:0 and even found himself one ball away from defeat. However, he dealt with this new situation and forced his opponent to make a mistake with an attacking blow. He made a mistake again in the second match point, but in the third, the nine-year-old Croatian ended the first mutual match with an unforced error.
Statistics of the match Jakub Menšík – Borna Corič (@Livesport)
The 18-year-old native of Prostějov won the opening match in his fourth tournament on the main circuit. After the third round at the US Open, the second round at the Australian Open and the final in Doha, he also made his debut at the traditionally well-attended and generously subsidized ATP 500 event in Dubai.
While he was 0-2 against TOP 50 players at the beginning of last week, he has now won four of five matches against them in eight days. In Doha, he also defeated three-time Grand Slam champion Andy Murray and world number five Andrei Rublev.
Jakub Menšík is still undefeated in the first round of tournaments on the main circuit (@ Profimedia)
The 87th player in the world, Menšík is playing his first tournament as a TOP 100 player, in which he is the youngest member and the seventh youngest in the last 10 years. A winning start in Dubai could move him into the eighth world top ten.
In the second round, Menšík will face Alejandro Davidovich again after a week (h2h 1:0). The eighth-seeded Spaniard defeated the Hungarian Fábián Marozsán 6:3, 4:6, 6:1 in the water polo, despite a limp and an injury to his right big toe, and after a series of three defeats, he got the feeling of a winning match.
Medvedev – Shevchenko 6:3, 7:5
If Menšík advances to the quarterfinals for the second time, he could challenge defending champion and world number four Daniil Medvedev. The top-seeded Russian in Dubai beat naturalized Kazakh Alexander Shevchenko 6-3, 7-5 in his first match since losing in the Australian Open final, in which he failed to hold a 2-0 lead in sets against Jannik Sinner and then rested for several weeks to treat a leg injury. He turned the second set from 3:5.
Back like he never left @DaniilMedwed defeats Shevchenko 6-3 7-5 in his first match back since the Australian Open! #DDFTennis pic.twitter.com/XD6n0BeMiD
— Tennis TV (@TennisTV) February 27, 2024
“I took a week and a half off and was just myself. But when I got back on the court, I started feeling pain and I wasn’t training at 100 percent. It’s very delicate, because then when you go into a match, you have to forget. If you don’t focus only on tennis, you will lose. I didn’t feel any pain today and I’m looking forward to the next match,” said Medvedev.
The 28-year-old native of Moscow has 20 titles to his credit, including trophies from the US Open and the Tournament of Champions. However, he has never been able to defend the triumph in the following season and he has not even been able to win any of the tournaments twice. He won each of the 20 trophies in a different city.
20 Titles
0 Title Defences ❌Is this the tournament @DaniilMedwed successfully defends his first title? #DDFTennis pic.twitter.com/ekRGl6AwtV
— Tennis TV (@TennisTV) February 27, 2024
Results of the ATP 500 tournament in Dubai
Article originally published for Livesport News.
2024-02-27 22:57:00
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