Lehecka passes Cilic test in Belgrade: 'He hasn't forgotten how to play'

pa href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/jiri-lehecka/l0bv/overview'Jiri Lehecka/a delivered a statement performance against a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/marin-cilic/c977/overview'Marin Cilic/a on Tuesday at the a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/tournaments/belgrade/4787/overview'Belgrade Open/a to serve up some Czech history./p

pThe fourth seed powered to a 6-4, 7-6(4) victory, becoming the first Czech player to reach seven ATP Tour quarter-finals in one season since a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/tomas-berdych/ba47/overview'Tomas Berdych/a in 2017. With the one-hour, 43-minute win, Lehecka extended his perfect record against opponents outside the Top 100 in the PIF ATP Rankings to 8-0./p

pldquo;He didnrsquo;t forget how to play,rdquo; Lehecka said of Cilic, the former World No. 3. ldquo;We saw that today, it was a good test for me. Itrsquo;s always a good win against a very experienced player, a Grand Slam champion, so Irsquo;m very happy.rdquo;/p

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pLehecka was ruthless on serve throughout the match, during which he won 89 per cent (33/37) points behind his first delivery, according to Infosys ATP Stats. In the last eight, the 22-year-old will face qualifier a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/lukas-klein/ki63/overview'Lukas Klein/a, who earlier upset seventh seed a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/tomas-martin-etcheverry/ea24/overview'Tomas Martin Etcheverry/a 6-4, 7-6(8)./p

pElsewhere, a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/hamad-medjedovic/m0jf/overview'Hamad Medjedovic/a continued his return to form with a hard-fought win over a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/aleksandar-kovacevic/k0az/overview'Aleksandar Kovacevic/a to advance to his third tour-level quarter-final. The wild card did not face a single break point, en route to a 7-6(5), 6-4 triumph./p

blockquote class="twitter-tweet"

p lang="en" dir="ltr"Say hello to your first quarter-finalist in Belgrade ???? ????????a href="https://twitter.com/MedjedovicHamad?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw"@MedjedovicHamad/a is through to his 3⃣rd ATP QF with a straight sets win over Kovacevic 7-6(5) 6-4a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/BelgradeOpen?src=hashamp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw"#BelgradeOpen/a a href="https://t.co/G1xWG6keMl"pic.twitter.com/G1xWG6keMl/a/p

mdash; ATP Tour (@atptour) a href="https://twitter.com/atptour/status/1853786978350739465?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw"November 5, 2024/a/blockquote

script async="" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"/script

pldquo;I was a bit tight in my first match [against a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/brandon-nakashima/n0ae/overview'Brandon Nakashima/a]," said Medjedovic, the reigning a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/tournaments/next-gen-atp-finals/7696/overview'Next Gen ATP Finals presented by PIF/a champion. ldquo;But now I have got into the rhythm, I am feeling great with the home crowd and Irsquo;m really enjoying it.rdquo;/p

pMedjedovic will face either third seed a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/francisco-cerundolo/c0au/overview'Francisco Cerundolo/a or a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/roman-safiullin/sx50/overview'Roman Safiullin/a, who earlier secured his 50th tour-level win by defeating a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/fabio-fognini/f510/overview'Fabio Fognini/a 6-3, 6-3./p

pOn a day of Serbian success, a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/laslo-djere/db63/overview'Laslo Djere/a won the battle of two wild cards with a commanding 6-4, 6-4 victory over a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/stan-wawrinka/w367/overview'Stan Wawrinka/a. The 29-year-old, who notched his third tour-level win on home soil, will face lucky loser a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/duje-ajdukovic/a0cj/overview'Duje Ajdukovic/a in the second round./p

p[NEWSLETTER FORM]/p