Jiří Lehečka (born 8 November 2001) is a Czechtennis player. Lehečka has a career high ATP singles ranking of World No. 59 achieved on 8 August 2022. He also has a career high ATP doubles ranking of World No. 214 achieved on 7 March 2022. Lehečka has a career high ITF junior combined ranking of No. 10 achieved on 11 March 2019. He is currently the No. 1 Czech tennis player in singles.[1]
Early life
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.[2]
Professional career
2021: Challenger 2 singles & 3 doubles titles, Singles top 150, Doubles top 250
Lehečka won two ATP Challenger singles titles, one ATP Challenger doubles title with Vít Kopřiva and two with Zdeněk Kolář.
2022: Major debut, first match win & semifinal on ATP debut, Top 60
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.[4] 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.[5]
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.[6] He lost to wildcard and eventual champion Holger Rune in the first round.