Jiri Lehecka took revenge this Sunday against Andrey Rublev, who had beaten him last year in the second round of Indian Wells. In the same scenario, the 22-year-old Czech and 32nd in the world won, this time by a double 6-4 in just 73 minutes and thus emulated his current coach, the great Tomas Berdych. Lehecka is the first tennis player from his country to beat a top-45 player in a hard-court Masters 1,000 since his current coach did so in Cincinnati in 2013, when he beat Andy Murray, then number two, in the quarterfinals. , before falling in the semifinals against number three, Rafa Nadal, the eventual champion.
After beating Rublev, the fifth seed, for the second time in his career (the other was in Doha last year), another tough nut to crack awaits Jiri in the round of 16, Stefanos Tsitsipas. The Greek was very firm to win by a double 6-3 in 78 minutes against the American Frances Tiafoe. It is the first time so far this season that Tsitsipas beats a top-20.
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The one who is more than used to beating anyone is Jannik Sinner, who has accumulated 17 consecutive wins since mid-November 2023, with titles in the Davis Cup, the Australian Open and Rotterdam. The Italian defeated the German Jan-Lennard Struff (6-3 and 6-4 in 1h14) and will face the American Ben Shelton on Tuesday, executioner of the Argentine Francisco Cerúndolo (7-6 (5), 3-6 and 7 -6 (5)) in the last duel of the day. Sinner has won 52 of his first 75 Masters 1,000 matches. Only Nadal (60) and Djokovic (54) had more victories in the same number of matches. “I have a lot of respect for all the players, but I’m not afraid to face them. I think that is also a quality, because especially when I play the pressure points and the important ones, I still like to go for the shots,” Jannik answered when asked about his best aptitude.
From Miñaur, against Zverev
Alex de Miñaur, champion this season in Acapulco and finalist in Rotterdam, is also in great shape, successes that have allowed him to enter the Top-10 for the first time. The Australian won this Sunday 7-5 and 6-0 against the Kazakh Alexander Bublik, very serious this year despite conceding an unappealable 7-5 and 6-0 on this occasion. De Minaur will face a tough opponent, Alexander Zverev. The German did not suffer too much to defeat the Dutch Tallon Griekspoor 7-6 (7) and 6-3. The German only has the Indian Wells semifinals left to be able to boast of having played at least once in the nine Masters 1,000.
2024-03-11 03:31:57
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