Jiří Lehečka enjoyed a promising week in Beijing beating Spanish duo Pedro Martinez and Roberto Bautista-Agut before taking world #1 Jannik Sinner to a second set tiebreak, where he would ultimately lose 8-6. Despite this, there are plenty of positives to take, and here on Last Word on Tennis, we dissect the bigger picture impact of this run.
Jiří Lehečka Continues to Make Progress
A Solid Showing Against the Best
Truthfully, the start wasn’t overly competitive, Sinner raced into an early lead in the opening set without breaking much sweat. The Italian was barely out of first gear, but a flurry of errors from his Czech Republic counterpart meant he was up a set in no time. 6-2 down against an opponent who beat him in straight sets earlier in the year at Indian Wells, he could have forgiven for letting his head drop.
Yet rather interestingly, he increased his aggression. Before long, Sinner was uncomfortable and forced into languidly moving around the court in front of the Chinese crowd. The world #37’s ace count went from zero to two, and while he only managed to make 45% of his first serves compared to Sinner’s 62%, he won 62% of those points, more than his opponents’ 53%.
Throughout the second set, it was a battle, he even had set points in the tiebreak. However, Sinner showed the expected steel to see it out.
Big Hitting Game Style
There was plenty to admire from a stylistic point of view. There wasn’t an aspect of fear in his game, he went for the big shots and tried to implement his style against the world’s best. With such a low first serve percentage, you wonder how much more effective this could have been if he was consistently starting the point on the upper hand.
Yet, this was Sinner he was up against. He can take heart from the showing.
Should the recently turned twenty-two-year-old wish to keep making progress, and break into the seed spot in Grand Slam, this style will be conducive to success.
His stature is powerful, and his legs are the sizes of tree trunks. He uses this solid base to unleash rockets on the forehand side, plus his backhand is incredibly reliable.
He has the game to hurt top players, we saw that earlier in the year when he defeated Daniil Medvedev in the Cincinnati semi-final 7-6, 6-4, plus his run to the Madrid semi-finals when he took out none other than Rafael Nadal.
Although, it was that fortnight when he unfortunately suffered a stress fracture in his vertebra and never got to face Felix-Auger Alliassime.
Recovering from injuries is never easy, particularly at this young stage of his career, but he seems to be back on track and on his way to the top 32.
The pattern
The Next generation is here and clearly, there is a style difference.
The Big Four era was followed by a range of players such as Stefanos Tstitsipas, Alexander Zvervev, Dominic Thiem and Daniil Medvedev. What’s quite interesting about them is that their game styles weren’t majorly different. All four felt most comfortable at the baseline, in a rally-dominant game. The issue? Well, that was the forte of Novak Djokovic, Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Andy Murray. Medvedev and Thiem both have a US Open to their name, but that whole generation total has already been tripled by the grand slam combined count of Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner.
The latter two have a far more powerful game. The point construction isn’t quite the same as the previous generation, it’s more efficient and much quicker paced.
We can see this as a trend continuing with the likes of Arthur Fils, Ben Shelton and Jack Draper making a name for themselves, plus the signs of promise in the past few years from Holger Rune.
Lehečka falls straight into this bracket.
How far can he go?
There is the argument that he may need to bring more variety to his game, while he is a powerhouse, you need a little more at the top level.
Alcaraz and Sinner can hit as hard, but they also have a drop shot, the ability to play a loopy open-stance backhand to neutralise the point, the Cincinnati finalist is still to show that is in his locker.
However, the future is still bright, and there is definitely a top-ten player in there. In the meantime, he faces Jaume Munar in the Shanghai Masters round of 64.
Main Photo Credit: Susan Mullane-USA TODAY Sports
