Carlos Alcaraz is a man on a mission to add another US Open title to his collection of Grand Slams.
Alcaraz has shared the last seven majors with Jannik Sinner, and the pair are currently on a collision course to meet in a third consecutive Grand Slam final.
Alcaraz has been working on something in practice, and it would appear after his win over Jiri Lehecka that his game is currently in a strong place.
Praise for Alcaraz came from Martina Navratilova after the Spaniard destroyed Arthur Rinderknech in round four, and it does feel like his game is warming up nicely.
Marion Bartoli believes just two players can beat Alcaraz and after losing to him, Lehecka conceded that he got an extremely strong version of his opponent during the quarterfinal clash.
Photo by KENA BETANCUR/AFP via Getty ImagesJiri Lehecka makes claim about Carlos Alcaraz
The Czech player gave it his all, but ultimately, he couldn’t oust Alcaraz and reach a first Grand Slam semi-final at the US Open.
After the match, the 23-year-old admitted that playing Alcaraz was extremely tough and it felt like he was playing a different version of the Spaniard at a Grand Slam event.
He said in his press conference: “I think today I met the Grand Slam version of Carlos. That’s the way I would like to think about it.
“It’s been a difficult match. We all know that he and Jannik right now and, of course, at Grand Slams, Novak – these are the three guys who are the hardest to beat, I would say.
“Carlos just showed he is one of the contenders for sure. Everyone knows that, and he proved it today as well.
“I don’t really think it was a bad performance from my side. I felt quite okay, but I think that the most important things, which he needed to do, he did better than me.
“And I felt that against Carlos, if you want to beat him, you need to win at least a few of the big points and he won all of them. Even when I played a really good rally, even when I tried to put him under pressure and go to the net or change the rhythm and do something, he was there and he had an answer for everything that I tried.
“Of course then I must say that he was serving better and he was much more solid on the return. He was very consistent on his return games and he knew exactly what he wanted to play, the way he wanted to play and he was putting me under pressure a lot when I didn’t serve well.
“I mean, if I want to beat a guy like him then I really need to show my best at the big points, because every time that I had a chance, for example in the second set, when there was a close game, when I had a chance to go at least for a break point, there was a good rally but unfortunately he was everywhere and he always managed to do something special.
“So even though I didn’t play badly, I played a very good shot or something like that, he had the answer and that was kind of demotivating sometimes.
Lehecka has time on his side to compete with Alcaraz
Alcaraz thrashed Lehecka in the final at Queen’s earlier this year, too, and although he did beat him in Doha, this was one-way traffic for Alcaraz.
Lehecka is only 23 though and there is no reason why he cannot compete for a Grand Slam title in the years to come if he can just make some minor tweaks to his game.
Lehecka could do with continuing to bolster his ATP world ranking, with his current standing of 21 doing little when it comes to meeting the top players at earlier stages.
If Lehecka can simply get over the line and beat one of the top players at a Grand Slam, then perhaps he can garner belief and show that he can eventually stand in the winner’s circle himself.