Miami Open 2023: Jiri Lehecka cruises past Federico Coria in first round

Lehecka won easily in 63 minutes thanks to his strong groundstrokes and willingness to attack whenever he could.

Jiri Lehecka in a file photo (image: Twitter)
By Nilavro Ghosh | Mar 24, 2023 | 3 Min Read follow icon Follow Us

After cruising to a 6-3, 6-4 first-round victory over Federico Coria on Thursday, Jiri Lehecka took some time to come to form in his first Miami Open. Lehecka, a 21-year-old who is playing in just his third ATP Masters 1000 main draw match, jumped out to an early 3-0 lead against Coria on Court 1 at Hard Rock Stadium. That established the tone for their first head to head match, which Lehecka won easily in 63 minutes thanks to his strong groundstrokes and willingness to attack whenever he could.

“The conditions suit me much better than in Indian Wells,” Lehecka later told ATPTour.com. “The surface is a bit faster and the balls are flying more. Today’s match was tough because it was my first match in Miami. I managed it well. I was serving pretty good. I knew that Federico improved a lot on hard courts, which meant I tried to prepare a bit better for our match, and I’m super happy that I won.”

Ranked 44th in the world Lehecka scored 23 goals and won 75% (9/12) of the points he attempted at the goal. Coria, a Cordoba finalist, fought valiantly to prevent his opponent from breaking serve more than once per set, but the Argentine was unable to generate any break points of his own, failing in his attempt to advance to the second round in Miami for the first time.

Lehecka’s strong Miami debut represents another step forward in a breakout season for the 2022 Next Gen ATP Finals runner-up after he reached the Australian Open quarterfinals in January and then recorded his first Masters 1000 main-draw victory in Indian Wells two weeks ago. The Czech has now matched his total number of victories for the entire 2022 season after defeating Coria for his 13th tour-level victory of the year.

Daria Kasatkina crashes out to Elise Mertens

Elise Mertens defeated Daria Kasatkina 4-6, 6-2, 6-2 in the second round of the Miami Open, breaking her unfavourable trend against the No. 8 seed. Mertens had only ever won once before in the second round of the 2017 New Haven tournament, giving Kasatkina a 4-1 head-to-head advantage going into the match. After losing the opening set after leading 3-0 double-break, the Belgian lost all three sets they played in the following matches.

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Kasatkina, who required a medical time-out towards the end of the second set, started to feel sick, but Mertens recovered. She had made 28 unforced errors in the first set, which cost her the lead. However, she significantly tightened up in the second, giving up only four points on serve. Mertens decreased her error total to 17 over the course of the second and third sets combined.

The 39-ranked Mertens deployed smart tactics in the decider as Kasatkina’s energy visibly sapped away. She relentlessly extended the rallies and dismantled Kasatkina’s forehand to win the opening game. Kasatkina’s double fault gave Mertens the double-break advantage for 5-2, and she won with her third ace of the day.

The result was Mertens’ 10th career Top 10 win, and first since she defeated Simona Halep in the third round of Madrid 2021. As she attempts to make it to the Miami last 16 for a second time, she will next play either No. 29 seed Petra Martic or Wang Xiyu.

(Information taken from official ATP website)