“The feelings are beautiful and I’m enjoying it. I still don’t understand what it means for me and my career, but maybe that’s a good thing. I’m still focusing on the next round and the matches that await me here,” said Lehečka. He smiled as he heard the cheers from the fans during the post-match interview at the Kia Arena. He thanked the audience for their support and highlighted the qualities of his opponent, whom he defeated for the first time in his career. Noriemu avenged the week old defeat from Auckland. He had also previously lost to him in the Davis Cup two years ago.
“It was difficult to find tactics against him, because he is a very good player. The only thing I learned from past matches was to never give up and fight for every ball,” said the Czech tennis player. He fought with the tournament eleven for three hours and fifteen minutes, turning from 1:2 to sets. “It’s hard to single out one exchange. It was tennis at a high level. We both pushed each other to the best possible performance. I’ve established that if I can play well, it doesn’t matter who’s on the other side, and I always have a chance,” he added Lightweight.
The 21-year-old player was not broken even by the lost tie break in the first set, where he did not use three set points. It was thanks to this that he recognized in himself that he had improved psychologically as well. “I remember when I experienced something like this before, it was noticeable on me for two or three games. Now I quickly got knocked out of it. I broke Cameron’s serve straight away, although it must be said that it was one of his worst games in the whole match. After that I was able to serve it and it was a boost that gave me hope and motivation that the match doesn’t end,” Lehečka noted.
Jiří Lehečka sensationally advanced to the round of 16 of the Australian OpenVideo: sntv
The 71st player in the world became the eleventh Czech singles player in the open era to reach the round of 16 at the Australian Open. The last one was Berdych four years ago, who also made it to the quarterfinals the year before. “It was easy for me as a tennis player from the Czech Republic. I grew up in a generation where we won the Davis Cup twice. When I see my game, I imagine Tomáš Berdych and I try to be inspired by him,” Leheček said on the court.
They will meet Auger-Aliassime in the round of 16. The Canadian, a year older, defeated Argentine Francisco Cerúndol in four sets today. In the second round, he also turned around from 0:2 against Slovakian Alex Molčan. “I have training with Alex tomorrow, so I’ll talk to him about it. I trained with him (Auger-Aliassim) once, so we know each other. We both play a similar game and it will be a good match for sure. Hopefully I’ll be able to give my best performance, ” Lehečka added.
