Miami Masters: Lehecka defeats 18th seed Musetti, reaches third round

Czech Jiri Lehecka reached the third round of the Miami Masters by beating Italian Lorenzo Musetti, the No 18 seed, 6-4, 6-4 at the Hard Rock Stadium on Saturday.

Lehecka faced a last-second schedule change when Stefanos Tsitsipas was granted a walkover from Richard Gasquet. The change forced Lehecka and Musetti to Stadium 1, and the Czech handled it well.

“It’s not easy when they change your schedule last minute,” said Lehecka. “I was supposed to play on Court No.1 where I achieved my first win here two days ago, so for me, I was thinking how it would be different on Centre Court. I didn’t practice there before so I didn’t have the chance to adjust – it wasn’t easy but I made it through and on court I felt very good.”

Lehecka faced only one break point against the Italian as he dropped just 15 points on serve overall to improve to 14-6 on the 2023 season.

That win total is quite remarkable when we consider that the Czech won only 13 matches (13-19) across the whole of 2022.

Lehecka – “When I am serving well opponents have it tough with me”

“Serve is the key to my game,” Lehecka said. “I know that I can play really good even from the baseline, but at the same time I feel really good when I can help myself with the serve, and as we saw today when I am serving well opponents have it tough with me.”

Lehecka, ranked No 44, will face the winner of the match between Russian Karen Khachanov, the No 14 seed, and Argentinian Tomas Martin Etcheverry next.

Ahead of his victory, the 21-year-old Czech won against Argentinian Federico Coria (6-3, 6-4).

Miami Masters, other second-round results (Hard Rock Stadium, hard, USD 8.800.000, most recent results first):

• Roberto Carballes Baena vs. Daniil Medvedev
• Adrian Mannarino vs. Ben Shelton
• Karen Khachanov vs. Tomas Martin Etcheverry
• Yosuke Watanuki vs. Frances Tiafoe
• Gregoire Barrere vs. Cameron Norrie
• Daniel Evans vs. Lorenzo Sonego
• Hubert Hurkacz vs. Thanasi Kokkinakis
• Felix Auger-Aliassime vs. Thiago Monteiro
• Alex De Minaur vs. Quentin Halys
• Yoshihito Nishioka vs. Alex Molcan: saturday
• Mackenzie McDonald vs. Matteo Berrettini: saturday
• Sebastian Baez vs. Cristian Garin: saturday
• Richard Gasquet vs. Stefanos Tsitsipas
• Francisco Cerundolo (25) beat Aleksandar Kovacevic (LL): 6-4, 6-4
• Christopher Eubanks (Q) beat Borna Coric (17): 3-6, 6-4, 6-2
• Taro Daniel (WC) beat Alexander Zverev (13): 6-0, 6-4
• Holger Rune (7) beat Marton Fucsovics: 6-3, 7-5
• Casper Ruud (3) beat Ilya Ivashka: 6-2, 6-3
• Dusan Lajovic beat Maxime Cressy (30): 6-4, 7-6 (2)
• Alejandro Davidovich Fokina (20) beat Brandon Nakashima: 6-4, 7-6 (5)
• Grigor Dimitrov (21) beat Jan-Lennard Struff (Q): 4-6, 7-6 (5), 6-4
• Carlos Alcaraz (1) beat Facundo Bagnis: 6-0, 6-2
• Miomir Kecmanovic (29) beat Ugo Humbert: 6-4, 6-7 (5), 7-6 (3)
• Taylor Fritz (9) beat Emilio Nava (WC): 6-4, 6-1
• Tommy Paul (16) beat Marc-Andrea Huesler: 5-7, 6-3, 6-4
• Botic van de Zandschulp (26) beat Alexei Popyrin: 4-6, 7-6 (4), 6-2
• Diego Schwartzman (31) beat Yibing Wu: 7-6 (1), 6-1
• Jannik Sinner (10) beat Laslo Djere: 6-4, 6-2
• Andrey Rublev (6) beat J.J. Wolf: 7-6 (3), 6-4
• Emil Ruusuvuori beat Roberto Bautista Agut (22): 6-4, 7-6 (5)
• Denis Shapovalov (24) beat Guido Pella: 6-3, 3-6, 6-3