By Chris Oddo | @TheFanChild | Saturday February 12, 2022
We’ve heard so much about the ATP's three highest-ranked players beneath the age of 21 – Jannik Sinner, Carlos Alcaraz and Lorenzo Musetti – but this week tennis fans were introduced to the seventh-ranked player yet to turn 21, Jiri Lehecka of the Czech Republic.
Lehecka spent the week raising eyebrows at the ABN Amro World Tennis Tournament in Rotterdam, plowing his way through qualifying (wins over Jesper de Jong and Corentin Moutet) and notching a massive upset over World No.12 Denis Shapovalov before taking out Botic Van de Zandschulp and Lorenzo Musetti to reach the last four.
In his first ATP main draw (!), Lehecka became the youngest semifinalist at Rotterdam since 1995. Judging from the well-rounded tennis the 20-year-old put on display, the result is by no means a fluke. Lehecka has played seven finals on the futures and challenger circuit over the last 52 weeks, winning three. He started 2021 ranked 355 and will take his spot inside the ATP’s Top-100 next week.
Live rankings have him at a projected 95 on Monday, and if Lehecka keeps putting up performances like he managed at Rotterdam, he’ll go higher in the weeks and months to come.
More About Jiri Lehecka
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Posted 33-18 Challenger record in 2021 with titles at Tampere and Bucharest, as well as runner-up finishes at Poznan and Pau.
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In 2019, achieved junior career-high No. 10 and won Wimbledon boys’ doubles title with countryman Forejtek.
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Coached by: Michal Navratil
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Made Grand Slam debut (via qualifying) at 2022 Australian Open and lost to Grigor Dimitrov in round one
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Both parents were professional athletes. Mother participated in track-and-field and father was a professional swimmer.
So what’s to like about the game of Jiri Lehecka (pronounced LeHETCHka)? Well, a lot.
We start with the foundation – the perfect tennis build. At 6’1” 176 lbs, Lehecka is big enough to pack a powerful punch (he most certainly does) and lean and light enough to be a plus mover. And he’s got potential for significant improvement in both areas.
Already it is obvious that Lehecka strikes a menacing backhand, and he produces it with a compact, efficient and repeatable swing, which allows him to handle pace and control rallies, thanks to his ability to take the shot up the line and crosscourt with equal verve.
On Saturday, Stefanos Tsitsipas came face-to-face with Lehecka, backhand and all, and just barely survived. After dropping the first set, the pair were on serve through nine games in the second before the Greek managed the late break to claim the middle set. Tsitsipas ran away with the third, and Lehecka showed his age, looking ragged as he went down easily in the decider, as if the energy had just dropped out of him – understandable when you think about how far he had come this week.
Nevertheless, Tsitsipas came away impressed with the Czech talent.
“He was really pushing me,” Tsitsipas said. “I did not know what to expect, so I was trying to figure out his patterns and his game. He was playing incredibly well after the first serve, pressing and attacking like I had never seen before. I had to stay in the match and I managed to survive.”
Lehecka showed a lot of great tennis on Saturday in spite of the loss. He showed off many elements of his well-rounded game. He can defend well in both corners and has a strong backhand slice, which will serve him well. He’s light-footed and quick around the court, reads the game well and seems to get to the hitting zone early and without much fuss, most of the time.
From a serving standpoint, there is room to improve, but already a nice bit of pop. Lehecka topped out at 134 on Saturday, with his average first-serve at 119 MPH (5 mph lower than Tsitsipas during the match) and his average second serve at 105MPH (3 mph faster than Tsitsipas).
We haven’t mentioned the forehand yet, but not because it isn’t a strong shot – it is. It’s very strong, in fact. Lehecka can rip the inside-out forehand and doesn’t hesitate to come in behind it. The presence of power off of both wings, couple with the Czech’s willingness to dictate and finish at net makes him a constant headache for opponents. One has to find a way to get him on the back foot to make inroads, he doesn’t sit back and just allow his opponents to put him on defense.
Then there are the intangibles. He’s remarkably poised and unbothered on court, just goes about his business with a clear head and a positive mindset. He’s quite a shotmaker, when the situation calls for it – some of the returns he hit against Tsitsipas for winners were top shelf – and he’s extremely versatile in the sense that he hits all the shots well.
The shotmaking element is critical. It’s one thing to hang about with top talents in rallies and match pace and power. But the thin margins in elite tennis mean that Lehecka will have to be able to employ his weapons in meaningful moments to win consistently on tour.
This the rite of passage for elite talents, the players that don’t wait around for their opponents to implode but rather take the fight to them and take the prize from them. Of course, Lehecka’s young, and he’ll inevitably face confounding matchups on tour, and his ability to produce consistently positive statistics on serve and return will depend on how well he adapts and reacts to every new challenge that he faces, but based on the very small sample size that we have on Lehecka it is easy to see that the potential is there for him to become a top player.
Success rarely comes in a straight line and Lehecka’s reversion to the mean may indeed come very soon, but in the long-term there is no reason to believe that he isn’t set up for success on tour. He’s got all the tools, and the potential to make them all the more lethal over time.
Perhaps most important, he has that icy cool, composed demeanor that will allow him to see clearly – and react accordingly - when the storms hit.