“Jiří Lehečka progresses to the 2nd round of the French Open after a thrilling five-set victory against Jan-Lennard Struff”

Jiří Lehečka he made his debut at all the Grand Slams last year and won at least a set each time, but was unable to win even one of the four duels. However, during the season, he gained a lot of valuable experience, “settled” in the TOP 100 and ended the year with a defeat in the final of the Tournament of Champions for players under 21 years of age.

And this year, he transforms the already acquired playing experience and self-confidence into winning entries into individual grand slams. In January at the Australian Open, he finally made it all the way to the quarterfinals, and today he also scored his first victory at Roland Garros.

At the same time, the 21-year-old native of Mladá Boleslav lost his form during the clay spring and lost to paper outsiders. He arrived in Paris with a streak of four defeats, including one scratch, but he was able to fine-tune his form for the Grand Slam tournament even under the supervision of Tomáš Berdych.

In the opening round, he successfully challenged the seeded German Jana-Lennarda Struffa, who, on the other hand, has gotten into a great playing mood during the last two months. He defeated Casper Ruud, Stefanos Tsitsipas and in the final of the Masters tournament in Madrid he also troubled Carlos Alcaraz.

However, the different forms of the tennis players were not known from the opening exchanges, and both offered very high quality tennis to the packed and often powerfully cheering audience on court number 13. Lehečka led 2:1 in the sets and 3:1 in the fourth set, but Struff then took a risk and won five games in a row to force a fifth set.

However, the Czech tennis player did not lose his fighting spirit and continued to believe in his abilities and success before his third five-set climax. That’s also why he jumped to a 5-0 lead very quickly in the decisive act and never let go of the lead.

Although he made a fourth double fault at the first match point and offered his opponent a break point, he did not cause any more complications and thanks to 51 winners, he won 7:5, 1:6, 6:3, 3:6, 6:1 after 3 hours and 12 minutes of fighting. He recorded a five-set victory for the second time in his career, the first time he succeeded this year in Melbourne against Cameron Norrie.

It’s been a day full of 5 setters, and it’s Jiří Lehečka who comes through the latest, defeating Jan-Lennard Struff 7-5, 1-6, 6-3, 3-6, 6-1, running away with the deciding set in the end. A great win given Struff’s recent form!#RolandGarros #RG2023 pic.twitter.com/8dKt5HhtYH

— First Serve Tennis (@FirstServeTnnis) May 29, 2023

“I’m very happy that I succeeded. Every match won in five sets is extremely valuable. It’s a big kick for me after the unsuccessful Masters on clay,” Lehečka told reporters.

“Struff has shown in recent weeks that he can play on clay. He is a good player who has managed to get back into the 30s after injury and is a very valuable scalp. We know each other and we knew what to expect from each other. The quality of the match was good, ” he added.

For advancement to the 3rd round, the last Czech representative in the men’s singles match will compete with landmarks in Gironem (h2h 1:0), whom he already beat once in Paris – last year in the qualification of the indoor Masters 1000.