Jiří Lehečka

Lehečka was born in a hospital in Mladá Boleslav, but he is a native of Kněžmost.^[2]

Jiří Lehečka is the son of two athletes. His father was a swimmer, and his mother was a track and field star. He has long enjoyed skiing, cycling and swimming and remembers first touching a tennis racquet at three. His grandmother, who competed on a national level, taught his older sister the game, so naturally he wanted to play. When Lehečka was young, he admired Tomáš Berdych and Radek Štěpánek.^[3]

2021: Challenger titles, singles top 150 edit

Lehečka won two ATP Challenger singles titles, one ATP Challenger doubles title with Vít Kopřiva and two with Zdeněk Kolář.

2022: First ATP win & semifinal, top 60 edit

Lehečka qualified for the main draw of the 2022 Australian Open, defeating Michael Mmoh, Max Purcell, and Dmitry Popko.^[4] He lost in the first round to the 26th seed Grigor Dimitrov in four sets.

At the 2022 ABN AMRO World Tennis Tournament in Rotterdam, he reached the second round as a qualifier, with a stunning upset over fifth seed Denis Shapovalov in straight sets in his first ATP Tour main-draw match.^[5] He went on to defeat Botic van de Zandschulp and Lorenzo Musetti to reach the semifinals on his ATP debut, where he was defeated in three sets by top seed Stefanos Tsitsipas. He became the lowest-ranked Rotterdam semifinalist since then-World No. 225 Omar Camporese in 1995. As a result, he moved 42 positions up into the top 100 in the rankings at World No. 95 on 14 February 2022.^[6]

At the 2022 Serbia Open he qualified into the main draw but lost in the second round to second seed, World No. 8 and eventual champion Andrey Rublev.

At the 2022 BMW Open he qualified into the main draw again defeating Alejandro Tabilo 6–4, 7–6^(7–3) in the final round of qualifying.^[7] He lost to wildcard and eventual champion Holger Rune in the first round.

He made his debut at the 2022 French Open and the 2022 Wimbledon Championships where he lost in the first round in both.

At the 2022 Generali Open Kitzbühel he reached the quarterfinals defeating Thiago Monteiro^[8] and eight seed João Sousa^[9] before losing to third seed Roberto Bautista Agut in a tight three-set match.

He made his debut at the 2022 US Open, completing all Major debuts in one season, where he lost to Cristian Garín.^[10]

He qualified for the 2022 Next Generation ATP Finals^[11] and reached the semifinals defeating Matteo Arnaldi.^[12] He defeated Dominic Stricker in the semifinal but lost to Brandon Nakashima in the final in straight sets.

2023: First ATP final, top-10 victory, top 30 edit

Lehečka began his season as the top-ranked Czech male player at the inaugural 2023 United Cup where he lost to Taylor Fritz 3–6, 4–6 but defeated Alexander Zverev 6–4, 6–2 in Zverev's first ATP match coming back from injury. Lehečka also played mixed doubles with Marie Bouzková.

He reached the 2023 Australian Open fourth round defeating eleventh seed Cameron Norrie taking his revenge after he was beaten by Norrie at the 2023 Auckland Open the previous week.^[13][14] Next he defeated sixth seed Félix Auger-Aliassime, his first top-10 win, to reach a Major quarterfinal for the first time in his career.^[15] As a result, he moved more than 30 positions up into the top 40 at world No. 39 on 30 January 2023.^[16]At the same tournament he also reached the third round in doubles on his debut at the event at this Major with partner Alex Molčan.

At the 2023 Qatar ExxonMobil Open he recorded his first top-5 win over top seed Andrey Rublev to reach the semifinals,^[17] having previously defeated qualifier Damir Džumhur and Emil Ruusuvuori. In Dubai he lost to seventh seed Alexander Zverev.^[18]

At the 2023 BNP Paribas Open he recorded his first Masters win against Arthur Rinderknech.At the 2023 Miami Open he defeated Federico Coria for his second Masters win,^[19] and 18th seed Lorenzo Musetti to reach the third round of a Masters for the first time in his career.^[20][21]In Monte Carlo he defeated Emil Ruusuvuori and Grigor Dimitrov to move to the round of 16.

At the 2023 Wimbledon Championships he reached the fourth round for the first time at this Major with wins over Sebastian Ofner, 18th seed Francisco Cerúndolo and 16th seed Tommy Paul in a five set match.^[22]

He entered the 2023 Croatia Open Umag as the top seed at a tour-level event for the first time, and reached the quarterfinals with a win over Dominic Thiem.^[23] He also reached the quarterfinals in doubles with partner Roman Jebavý.

He reached his first ATP final at the 2023 Winston-Salem Open where he lost to Sebastián Báez.^[24] As a result, he reached the top 30 in the rankings at world No. 29 on 28 August 2023.^[25]

2024: First ATP title and Masters semifinal, top 25 edit

Lehecka reached his second final at the 2024 Adelaide International defeating third seed Sebastian Korda.^[26]He defeated Jack Draper to win his first ATP title.^[27][28] As a result he reached the top 25 in the rankings on 15 January 2024.

Seeded 32nd at the 2024 BNP Paribas Open, he reached the fourth round for the first time at a Masters 1000 defeating Brandon Nakashima and fifth seed Andrey Rublev, his second top 5 win and second against Rublev.^[29] He reached his first career Masters quarterfinal defeating 11th seed Stefanos Tsitsipas.

Ranked No. 31 at the 2024 Mutua Madrid Open, he reached his second Masters quarterfinal defeating qualifiers Hamad Medjedovic and Thiago Monteiro, Rafael Nadal in the round of 16, becoming the lowest ranked man to beat the former champion in a clay Masters.^[30] Next he defeated third seed Daniil Medvedev in the quarterfinals to reach his first career Masters 1000 semifinal.^[31]

Lehečka represents the Czech Republic at the Davis Cup, where he has a W/L record of 0–2.^[32] He made his debut at the 2019 Davis Cup qualifying round against Robin Haase of the Netherlands.

Singles edit

Current through the 2024 Madrid Open

Singles: 2 (1 title, 1 runner-up) edit

Result	W–L	Date	Tournament	Tier	Surface	Opponents	Score
Loss	0–1	Aug 2023	Winston-Salem Open, United States	250 Series	Hard	Sebastián Báez	4–6, 3–6
Win	1–1	Jan 2024	Adelaide International, Australia	ATP 250	Hard	Jack Draper	4–6, 6–4, 6–3

Doubles: 1 (1 runner-up) edit

Result	W–L	Date	Tournament	Tier	Surface	Partner	Opponents	Score
Loss	0–1	Jun 2023	Queen's Club Championships, United Kingdom	ATP 500	Grass	Taylor Fritz	Ivan Dodig Austin Krajicek	4–6, 7–6(7–5), [3–10]

Singles: 13 (6 titles, 7 runner-ups) edit

Result	W–L	Date	Tournament	Tier	Surface	Opponent	Score
Loss	0–1	Nov 2018	Czech Republic F11, Říčany	Futures	Hard	Tomáš Macháč	walkover
Loss	0–2	May 2019	M25+H Jablonec nad Nisou, Czech Republic	WTT	Clay	Patrik Rikl	6–7(3–7), 3–6
Win	1–2	Sep 2020	M25 Prague, Czech Republic	WTT	Clay	Sebastián Báez	3–6, 6–3, 6–4
Loss	1–3	Nov 2020	M15 Heraklion, Greece	WTT	Hard	Adrian Andreev	3–6, 4–6
Win	2–3	Feb 2021	M15 Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt	WTT	Hard	Paweł Ciaś	6–1, 6–3
Loss	2–4	Apr 2021	M25 Biel, Switzerland	WTT	Hard	Tim van Rijthoven	2–6, 2–6
Win	3–4	May 2021	M25 Jablonec nad Nisou, Czech Republic	WTT	Clay	Vitaliy Sachko	6–2, 6–2
Win	4–4	Jul 2021	Tampere, Finland	Challenger	Clay	Nicolás Kicker	5–7, 6–4, 6–3
Loss	4–5	Jul 2021	Poznań, Poland	Challenger	Clay	Bernabé Zapata Miralles	3–6, 2–6
Win	5–5	Sep 2021	Bucharest, Romania	Challenger	Clay	Filip Horanský	6–3, 6–2
Loss	5–6	Nov 2021	Pau, France	Challenger	Hard (i)	Radu Albot	2–6, 6–7(5–7)
Loss	5–7	May 2022	Mauthausen, Austria	Challenger	Clay	Jurij Rodionov	4–6, 4–6
Win	6–7	Aug 2022	Liberec, Czech Republic	Challenger	Clay	Nicolás Álvarez Varona	6–4, 6–4

Doubles: 6 (4 titles, 2 runner-ups) edit

Result	W–L	Date	Tournament	Tier	Surface	Partner	Opponents	Score
Loss	0–1	Nov 2018	Czech Republic F11, Říčany	Futures	Hard	Jiří Barnat	Jiří Jeníček Vojtěch Vlkovský	4–6, 5–7
Loss	0–2	Jun 2019	Prostějov, Czech Republic	Challenger	Clay	Jiří Veselý	Philipp Oswald Filip Polášek	4–6, 6–7(4–7)
Win	1–2	Apr 2021	M25 Meerbusch, Germany	WTT	Clay	Michael Vrbenský	Viktor Durasovic Markus Eriksson	6–3, 6–3
Win	2–2	Jun 2021	Milan, Italy	Challenger	Clay	Vít Kopřiva	Dustin Brown Tristan-Samuel Weissborn	6–4, 6–0
Win	3–2	Jul 2021	Poznań, Poland	Challenger	Clay	Zdeněk Kolář	Karol Drzewiecki Aleksandar Vukic	6–4, 3–6, [10–5]
Win	4–2	Nov 2021	Bergamo, Italy	Challenger	Hard (i)	Zdeněk Kolář	Lloyd Glasspool Harri Heliövaara	6–4, 6–4

Singles: 1 (1 runner-up) edit

Result	Date	Tournament	Surface	Opponent	Score
Loss	Nov 2022	Next Generation ATP Finals, Italy	Hard (i)	Brandon Nakashima	3–4(5–7), 3–4(6–8), 2–4

Doubles: 1 (1 title) edit

Result	Year	Tournament	Surface	Partner	Opponent	Score
Win	2019	Wimbledon	Grass	Jonáš Forejtek	Liam Draxl Govind Nanda	7–5, 6–4

• Lehečka has a 3–12 (20.0%) record against players who were, at the time the match was played, ranked in the top 10.

#	Player	Rk	Event	Surface	Rd	Score	Rk	Ref
2023
1.	Félix Auger-Aliassime	7	Australian Open, Australia	Hard	4R	4–6, 6–3, 7–6(7–2), 7–6(7–3)	71	[33]
2.	Andrey Rublev	5	Qatar Open, Qatar	Hard	QF	4–6, 6–4, 6–3	52	[34]
2024
3.	Andrey Rublev	5	Indian Wells Open, United States	Hard	3R	6–4, 6–4	31	[35]
4.	Daniil Medvedev	4	Madrid Open, United States	Clay	QF	6–4, 0–0r	31	[36]

Participations: (0–2) edit

• indicates the outcome of the Davis Cup match followed by the score, date, place of event, the zonal classification and its phase, and the court surface.

Rubber outcome	No.	Rubber	Match type (partner if any)	Opponent nation	Opponent player(s)	Score
1–3; 1-2 February 2019; Ostravar Aréna, Ostrava, Czech Republic; Davis Cup qualifying round; hard (i) surface
Defeat	1	IV	Singles	Netherlands	Robin Haase	4–6, 6–2, 3–6
3–2; 14–15 September 2019; Arena Zenica, Zenica, Bosnia and Herzegovina; Europe/Africa Zone Group I first round; hard (i) surface
Defeat	2	III	Doubles (with Jiří Veselý)	Bosnia and Herzegovina	Mirza Bašić / Tomislav Brkić	6–7(2–7), 3–6

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Jiří Lehečka.

• Jiří Lehečka at the Association of Tennis Professionals
• Jiří Lehečka at the International Tennis Federation
• Jiří Lehečka at the Davis Cup
• Jiří Lehečka at ESPN.com