Jiri Lehecka booked a spot in the Winston-Salem Open final before all the other quarter-final matches were even completed.
Now, you don't need to be a genius to understand what kind of advantage that is for the Czech player. He played one of the first matches on Thursday, beating Max Purcell and booking a spot in the semi-final. The semi-final was supposed to be a very good one against Sebastian Korda, but the American withdrew due to an injury, sending Lehecka straight into the final.
In itself that's not a big issue as stuff like that happens all the time however we still had two quarter-finals to be played that day. Lehecka was in the final and we didn't know who he would play with still 4 players in the running.
Lehecka was the Bachelor waiting to see which one of 4 eligible bachelorettes would face him in the final. It didn't really help that we had rain in much of the US on Thursday that stopped play. The WTA event in Cleveland wasn't being played due to rain, the US Open qualifiers were affected by rain, as was the Winston-Salem Open.
Eventually, play did restart and the quarter-finals were completed. Borna Coric defeated Juan Manuel Cerundolo 6-3 6-1 while Sebastian Baez smashed Laslo Djere 6-3 6-0. These two will contest the semi-final later today, and the winner will face Lehecka in the final on Saturday.
The physical advantage will be on the side of Lehecka as he will have a whole day more to rest between his two matches compared to no days for the winner of the Baez-Coric match. Whether that works out in his favour remains to be seen, but it's certainly better for him than if we would have the reverse situation. Stay with us to find out who will face him in the final.
0 Comments