Masterclass in motion: Jannik Sinner destroys Jiri Lehecka to reach Roland Garros second week

Jannik Sinner gave a tennis masterclass, defeating Jiri Lehecka 6-0, 6-1, 6-2 to advance to the fourth round of Roland Garros. The Italian played a dominant match from start to finish, delivering his best performance of the tournament, guaranteeing a clash with Andrey Rublev in the 4th round.

The Italian has now secured 8 wins in 9 appearances since his return (with a 15-1 record this season) and returns to the second week of a Grand Slam for the 8th consecutive time. The world No. 1 showed he's already at his peak level, confirming his title contender status after the victory that took just an hour and 35 minutes.

Sinner's level was superlative on this day, combined with an erratic performance from Lehecka. The Italian landed 83% of his first serves, winning 80% of those points, and conceded only four points on his serve throughout the set. Sinner won 74% of the points played in the first set, capitalizing on 3 out of 4 break points in his favor, while saving the only break opportunity he faced. It took him only 26 minutes to take the lead against an opponent who couldn't find his rhythm in the match and couldn't trouble Sinner on either his first or second serve.

Things wouldn't change much in the second part, although Lehecka gradually started to find his rhythm. In the second game, he managed to save a couple of break points against him, but it wasn't enough, and Sinner secured the break. The same happened in the 4th game; Lehecka fought to save three break points but ultimately couldn't hold his game. Thus, Sinner advanced with impeccable service games to 5-0, at which point Lehecka won his first game, breaking Sinner's streak of 11 consecutive games. It was merely a cosmetic change to the score, as Sinner closed the set 6-1, hitting 14 winners to Lehecka's only 7. Additionally, the Italian committed only 3 unforced errors, compared to 11 from his opponent.

It seemed unlikely that things would balance out, especially after Sinner started the third set with a break. The match had barely crossed the hour mark, and Sinner was already two sets up and 2-0 in the third. Lehecka showed some resistance in this part of the match, winning a couple of service games, though without getting any break opportunities. With the score 3-2 in favor of the Italian, Sinner hit the accelerator and won the last three games consecutively. He secured a 6-0, 6-1, 6-2 victory against an opponent who wasn't easy, demonstrating Sinner's superiority from start to finish, also aided by Lehecka's errors.

Sinner now guarantees a clash against Andrey Rublev, with whom he has 9 previous encounters (a 6-3 record in favor of the Italian). The Russian already surprised him in the quarterfinals of the Canadian Open 2024, being one of the few players who managed to defeat Sinner in the last two seasons (only four players have done so).