Cincinnati Masters: Back on Tour, Lehecka reaches second round

Jiri Lehecka moved into the second round of the Cincinnati Masters by beating Argentinian Mariano Navone 7-6, 6-3 at the Lindner Family Tennis Center on Tuesday evening.

It was Lehecka first match since his back injury against Félix Auger-Aliassime in Madrid semi-final (3-3 ret.) on May 3 and the Czech was delighted to be back on the court.

“It was an amazing feeling,” Lehecka told the ATP Tour website. “The most important thing was just to feel healthy again and not to feel any pain, which I must say happened today. I was totally pain-free. I felt good on court physically, which was the most important thing for me, and the fact that I won was just a bonus.”

For now, the Czech wants to remain healthy and pain-free as he gets ready to take on No 4 seed Daniil Medvedev in the second round.

“For me, the most important thing is now to to feel better every day, to feel good on court, to feel confident and to gain some confidence with all these matches that are ahead of me,” Lehecka said. “So that’s my goal. And of course, to be healthy and to play pain-free. That’s the number-one goal. And then, of course, we will see.”

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Tennis Majors

Cincinnati Masters 1000, other first-round results (Lindner Family Tennis Center, hard, USD 6.795.555, most recent results first):

• Brandon Holt vs. Arthur Fils
• Gael Monfils vs. Alexei Popyrin
• Adrian Mannarino vs. Nuno Borges
• Holger Rune vs. Matteo Berrettini
• Jan-Lennard Struff vs. Stefanos Tsitsipas
• Jack Draper vs. Jaume Munar
• Felix Auger-Aliassime vs. Aleksandar Kovacevic
• Fabian Marozsan vs. Corentin Moutet
• Tomas Martin Etcheverry vs. Matteo Arnaldi
• Pablo Carreno Busta vs. Sebastian Korda
• Max Purcell vs. Tomas Machac
• Taylor Fritz vs. Brandon Nakashima
• Yoshihito Nishioka vs. Miomir Kecmanovic
• Lorenzo Musetti vs. Nicolas Jarry
• Ben Shelton vs. Reilly Opelka
• Jordan Thompson vs. Ugo Humbert
• Alex Michelsen vs. Tallon Griekspoor: tuesday
• Frances Tiafoe beat Alejandro Davidovich Fokina: 6-3, 7-6 (6)
• Luciano Darderi beat Alejandro Tabilo: 6-3, 7-6 (5)
• Sebastian Baez beat Marcos Giron: 6-4, 5-7, 7-6 (6)
• Zhizhen Zhang beat Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard: 6-3, 7-6 (4)
• Karen Khachanov beat Francisco Cerundolo: 6-0, 6-3
• Flavio Cobolli beat Tommy Paul (10): 6-2, 4-6, 7-5