There is a precedent between Jannik Sinner and Jiri Lehecka.

There'è a precedent between Jannik Sinner and Jiri Lehecka

Tonight at 7 p.m. Jannik Sinner will face Jiri Lehecka of the Czech Republic in the quarterfinals of the BNP Paribas Open, the Masters 1000 on the California cement of Indian Wells. At the ATP major circuit level, there is no history between the two players, who are both class of 2001, Sinner è born Aug. 16 and Lehecka on Nov. 8.

But there is a precedent, and it was played at the Challenger level in 2019, the season in which Sinner began to reveal himself to the general public, winning three Chllengers and two Futures and then, at the end of the year, the icing on the cake of his triumph in the ATP Generation Finals in Milan, which moved him from number 553 at the beginning of the year to number 78 in the world.

Sinner and Lehecka faced each other in the round of 16 of the Ostrava Challenger, then precisely the Czech’s home tournament, on clay in’early May, and it was Jannik who won with a score of 6-4 6-2 in an hour and 11 minutes of play.

Sinner then went all the way to the final, in which he lost to Kamil Majchrzak of Poland, who was then far ahead of him in the rankings, 129 versus 298. Now Jannik and Lehecka almost five years later find themselves, as No. 3 and No. 32, on a very different stage and also on a different superficial than they were that day in Ostrava.