Jiri Lehecka pulled off a major win by beating the world number 14 Denis Shapovalov 6-4, 6-4 in one hour and 31 minutes on Center Court at the Ahoy Arena.
The first two games of the match went on serve and at 1-1, the world number 137 earned two breakpoints and broke the Canadian serve to take an early 2-1 lead.
At 3-2, the Toronto native had three chances to break back and go back on serve but Lehecka saved all three and held serve. That one break of serve was enough to serve out the first set.
The Czech was motivated after claiming the first set and carried the momentum into the second where in the first game he had three more breakpoints and broke the Canadian once again.
The break didn’t last long as Shapovalov broke right back to go back on serve but at 2-2 Lehecka broke again for a 3-2 lead and in the following game he saved five breakpoints to consolidate the break.
The Canadian saved three breakpoints the next game to avoid going down a double break and the Czech was able to serve out the match for the biggest win of his young tennis career.
After the match, the world number 14 mentioned he wasn’t too comfortable with the conditions of the court.
” He played really well today, I wasn’t able to find my form so it was a little bit of myself but he played really well and I think he did everything great the conditions are tough and I haven’t had much success on this court,” said Lehecka.
Another big upset
That match wasn’t the only upset of the day as Tallon Griekspoor managed to fight back from 6-2, 5-2 down to beat the Russian Aslan Karatsev in three sets 2-6, 7-6, 7-6 in two hours and 27 minutes.
“I am very happy. It wasn’t looking great for most of the match and then to turn it around beating Aslan (Karatsev) who had an amazing year last year. I am looking forward to the next one”.
Day 2 results
In the other matches of the day, Andrey Rublev who is the number two seed and defending champion had no problems beating the Swiss Henri Laaksonen in straight sets 6-4, 6-4 in one hour and 12 minutes.
Karen Khachanov came back from a set down to beat the Aussie Alexei Popyrin 6-7, 6-1, 7-6 in a match that lasted two hours and 33 minutes, and the Italian Lorenzo Musetti also needed three sets to beat Mikael Ymer 6-3, 6-7, 6-3.
In the night session, Stefanos Tsitispias was pushed to three sets by Alejandro Davidovich Fokina but managed to beat him 7-5, 6-7, 6-4 in two hours and 39 minutes.
Finally, in the last match of the day, Botic Van De Zandschulp needed only 65 minutes to beat another Spaniard Bernabe Zapata Miralles 6-1, 6-2.
Day 3 preview
Round one of the main draw wraps up on Wednesday and the second round will begin later in the day. Filip Krajinovic faces the Hungarian who made the final last year Marton Fucsovics.
The number three seed and Canadian Felix Auger Aliassime faces the Belorussian Egor Gerasimov in his first match while Andy Murray will take on Alexander Bublik in the first match of the night session.
Lloyd Harris faces another Belorussian in Ilya Ivashka and the Frenchman Hugo Gaston will play South Korea’s Soonwoo Kwon.
In the second round, Hubert Hurkacz faces the Italian Lorenzo Musetti, Cameron Norrie faces the big Russian Karen Khachanov and Alex De Minaur faces the American Mackenzie Macdonald.
