‘Big Room For Improvement If I Want To Beat These Guys,’ Says Lehecka On Miami Open Loss To Sinner

‘Big room for improvement if I want to beat these guys,’ says Lehecka on Miami Open loss to Sinner (Image Source: IANS)

Miami Open: Jiri Lehecka acknowledged the challenges that lie ahead after falling to Jannik Sinner 6-4, 6-4 in the Miami Open final on Sunday. The Czech, 24, emphasised that while his tournament performance showed progress, there is still work to do if he hopes to overcome the sport’s elite.

For Sinner, the victory was historic. The Italian became the first man since Roger Federer in 2017 to win both Indian Wells and Miami in the same season, completing the Sunshine Double without dropping a set across the two events.

For Lehecka, the final marked a career milestone: his maiden ATP Masters 1000 final and a stepping stone toward a new career-high ranking of No. 14 in Monday’s ATP Rankings. Despite the loss, the Czech remained reflective about his performance.

“I think that these matches like today against these guys are showing me that there is still big, big, big room for improvement. I played, in my opinion, a very good tournament here. I was very satisfied with my game. But today I again saw that there is still somewhere to go, and that I will really need to keep improving more and more if I want to be able to beat these guys in the final stages of these big events like Masters and Grand Slams,” Lehecka said in his post-tournament press conference.

He highlighted the consistency he maintained throughout the tournament, noting where Sinner applied pressure.

“The way I was able to keep my key weapons working through all these matches was something that I was working towards in the last couple of weeks, months. Of course I would love to hold my serve the whole year, but that's not possible. Jannik played very good return games, and I felt during the whole match that he's putting more and more pressure on me," he said.

Reflecting on lessons from previous encounters, Lehecka contrasted his performance in Miami with last year’s French Open against Sinner.

“I showed today a better performance than in Paris, so I was focusing on not repeating the same mistake as back then. Which meant using my first serve as a weapon and going a little bit more to the net. At last year's Roland Garros, I felt that these conditions were extremely difficult for my game style. We played under the roof, Court Suzanne-Lenglen, super wet conditions, heavy balls. I felt that he was the one who basically had all the weapons at that moment. I could not help myself with the serve. Every time I played a good shot back then, he just had plenty of time to counter it somehow," Lehecka added.

Looking ahead, Lehecka expressed optimism that the confidence gained in Miami would carry into the clay-court season.

“I made a final here, so I think that even the work on Monte-Carlo clay will be easier for me with that confidence that I bring with myself. And at the same time, there is no better place to start the year on clay than Monte-Carlo. That place is amazing and I like to be there all the time when I can," he stated.

Looking ahead, Lehecka expressed optimism that the confidence gained in Miami would carry into the clay-court season.

“Double for the first time, it’s incredible,” Sinner said in his on-court interview. “It’s something I never would’ve thought (to win) because it’s difficult to achieve. We made it somehow, so I’m very happy," Lehecka mentioned.

Article Source: IANS