A week where anything is possible

This is surely the biggest opportunity Lehecka has ever had to win a title of this size, but the robot Sinner is standing in his way...

First of all, I want to highlight Lehecka’s incredible week: he only lost one set before this final and, above all, he still hasn’t been broken! That shows how dominant he’s been in his matches and how much he loves these conditions. He’s playing his best tennis with a good attitude, which isn’t always the case – right now we’ve got PRIME Lehecka. The Czech comes in fresh and with massive confidence after his lightning-fast semifinal; yes, Fils was not at his best, but Lehecka’s level of play just disgusted him, even on return he was inspired, which is rare for him. Everything is in place for him to have a shot tomorrow… or not?

When I look back at his week, I do see a bit of luck in the draw: he beats Fritz but the rest is Kouame, Quinn, Landaluce and a tired Fils. We’re talking about being in a Masters 1000 final and the level of his opponents is miles away from what Sinner is going to bring. So yes, Lehecka has been excellent, that’s true, but against players so much weaker than Sinner. The Italian is on an 11‑match winning streak without dropping a single set, 6/6 tiebreaks won. His new lethal weapon is the serve; he reminds me of Djoko now, whenever he’s in trouble in a service game he hits two first serves and gets out of it calmly, he’s impressive. His semifinal against Zverev was insanely high level, they were both hitting steel from both sides and I don’t even see how Zverev could play better than that. I don’t think Lehecka is capable of reproducing that level, quite simply, and even if he is, we can see that it’s still not enough..

The other killer stat is Sinner’s 4–0 lead in the H2H already, with incredibly one‑sided scorelines and not a single set lost. Nothing points in Lehecka’s direction. The only valid argument is that we’re in optimal conditions for his game and there’s something special for him this week at this tournament, but that’s just not enough..