Jiri Lehecka

Backhands—5+ rally dominance—stealing time

Young Czech Jiri Lehecka came from a set down to upset Felix Auger-Aliassime 4/6 6/3 7/6 7/6 on Sunday and move into his maiden quarterfinal at a Grand Slam.

This was an impressive performance from Lehecka, who repeatedly kept Auger-Aliassime off balance with his backhand power and change-of-direction. Back in October of last year in a preview of the Basel Final between Auger-Aliassime and Holger Rune, I made the following key point in Rune’s game plan that I thought was necessary to beat the Canadian heavy-hitter:

1. Target the FAA forehand early in the rally to open up the backhand. Serve to the forehand and rush FAA’s backhand on the run. Getting the Canadian off his backhand mound will make him uncomfortable.

2. Come forward to steal time. FAA has hit some unbelievable passing shots this week, but they aren't percentage plays. He’s in a purple patch. Put it to the test again.

Rune would lose that match, but the tactics above are still sound, and Lehecka played that to perfection yesterday. Lehecka’s backhand especially is one of the cleanest shots in tennis, and it should be no surprise to see that he gets a full turn of the racquet and minimizes the ‘flip’ or lag; he just drives that thing so flat and takes it early—who needs spin when you do that? His forehand is also very simple/in-line with modern forehands of 15 years ago. He keeps the elbow low, racquet head upright, wrist extended. He reduces flip with a longer takeback. In short, he is giving himself a damn good chance to time the ball well, and yesterday’s match involved plenty of sweetly-timed winners.

Exact features I've been preaching here that are also seen in Rune. Extended wrist and upright racquet head on the forehand set up, along with the racquet set back near back fence (again, reducing flip/lag). Full turn with the racquet to the backfence on the backhand/swinging from the inside (A shot of Felix from this same angle would show the strings and racquet head almost behind the ball. Kid is good.

From the beginning of the second set Lehecka started to get his teeth into the FAA service games, committing to taking the backhand early and change direction: note how FAA is always one step on the backhand side when Lehecka catches him off guard and goes down-the-line.

After Felix’s forehand he moves back and across ready to defend his backhand, but Lehecka takes it line. Note also that Lehecka was coming in after he hit this. He was always looking to keep FAA off balance with plenty of line balls and was always looking to come forward and steal time on FAA’s defence.

Note that Lehecka does shorten his swing on the first half-volley backhand here (i.e. keeps the racquet to the outside) BUT, when he has time, he takes a full turn. This is how you play the backhand. Stock stroke is a full turn, but you’re able to shorten for returns and when rushed like above. Making your stock backend with a short turn just makes timing harder (unless you have the Norrie/Kyrgios/Paul open grip and lack of drop; something FAA does not have).

Lehecka ventured forward at every opportunity, rushing FAA for time and forcing him to come up with big shots under pressure.

Stays low, side on, and abbreviates the finish/hooks the hands to bring it down and in.

While much of a commentary broadcast is there to pad the silence, once in a while they do touch on the things that move the needle:

Wall Masur: “And if there’s a difference between the backhands of the two men, it’s the ability of Lehecka to take it on the rise and flatten it out. Felix is a little more conventional in that prefers to hit a dropping ball with shape. Lehecka is more aggressive on that backhand wing.”

(Spoiler: Felix isn’t “conventional” on his backhand. His technique gets exposed when put under pressure).

While FAA went on a tear indoors late last year, his game is still able to be undone by players with a strong AD-side who can change direction from that corner. His serve and plus-one forehand are very good (and amplified indoors), but as the stats show, once Lehecka made two balls in the rally, the Czech’s game was utterly dominant. In fact, beyond four shots Lehecka was winning a whopping 65% of points (remember that winning 56% of points is pretty much GOAT-ing tennis/what Djokovic was doing in 2011). Here’s another one that showcased the disparity in baseline dominance: of the 78 rallies that extended past 4 shots, FAA only managed to hit winners on 4 of them. Lehecka? He hit 17.

Felix gets the upper hand in the 0-4 category, largely off the back of his great serve and power forehand on the short balls, but once the rallies extended past 4 balls Lehecka won a monstrous 65%.

Again, midway through the third-set, and with the Czech continuing to dominate the longer exchanges, the commentators noted:

“What does he [Auger-Aliassime] then go to? All he can really do is keep serving big and playing the same way (read: crushing forehands) and hoping that’s good enough, whereas Lehecka, he’s got a couple more dimensions to go to.”

These “dimensions” I believe open up when you build your game on simple strokes. Taking the ball earlier is easier, which makes changing direction and coming forward easier. It all nudges you in the direction of playing more chess-like tennis, where you attack by stealing time, rather than adding power or rpm to your own shots in a brute force fashion. You leverage your movement. Despite being the smaller and less powerful player, Lehecka managed to come forward 15 more times than FAA, and crucially, his execution was far superior (winning 33/41).

Lehecka takes on Stefanos Tsitsipas in the quarterfinals on Monday. Tsitsipas needs to make it a match of forehands if he is to navigate past the Czech (as he should do when playing Djokovic). Getting into backhand exchanges with Lehecka in this kind of form is to ask for the same fate of FAA. Currently #39 in the live rankings, Lehecka has all the tools of a top-10 player. Just a matter of time.