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feather_ghyllFirst up, Jack Draper vs. Jiri Lehecka, both 23, and, because I was watching on BBC One, I don’t know who won the toss, but presume it was the Czech, choosing to put Draper in to serve. If so, it worked, because Draper wasn’t quite on it, giving Lehecka an early lead, and he started serving bombs to consolidate. Draper got his service motion going, but Lehecka continued to win his service games relatively easily and won the first set.
Positivity from Draper from the start of the second set, though. He was winning his service games easily and starting to put more stress on his opponent with his return position. He started seeing more second serves, getting into more points, piling more pressure of Lehecka, who had to defeat a lot of break points. The pressure turned into scoreboard pressure too as Lehecka served at 4-5, and Draper bossed the game, having to wait for confirmation that his winning shot was in because the crowd’s cheer was so loud. Basically, Draper looked like the top 10 player here, and Lehecka had lost his first set in these championships.
Draper was serving first in the third set and serving well, but Lehecka was doing a better job in his service games than he had in the second set. But as we approached the second half of the set, Draper’s first serve deserted him. Although he was still winning a high number of points on second serve, it made life more difficult. Lehecka was still serving well, and at 5-5, a game of few first serves, broke. (Draper’s racquet got thumped, in an explosion that gave him a grazed knee.) Lehecka was impressive in serving it out for his first grass final (after sitting out the grass season last year with his injury) when his game really suits the surface.
There was a bit of padding, because there was a bit of rain, with the second semi delayed until 4 o’clock or so. Two Spaniards, the eldest of whom had been up late playing a three setter the night before, the youngest of whom had won their last two matches. As they were Roberto Bautista-Agut and Carlos Alcaraz respectively, there was a clear favourite. And from the first point on, both of them were there to play, with Alcaraz determined to break. Bautista-Agut had to play well to fend him off, and eventually cracked. No problem on Alcaraz’s serves (I was particularly impressed by what he was doing on his second delivery.) First set went to Alcaraz.
Bautista-Agut was still playing well, and although I think Alcaraz was experimenting a bit, relearning grass, still, he was in no danger of a lapse in concentration, because he expected to break at some point. Which he did.
We had an annoying switch of channels mid game late in the second set. To his credit, Bautista-Agut did not go another game down, and actually saw some break points in an Alcaraz service game, but Alcaraz’s forehand saw him through. (Also everything else about his game.)
In the middle of all this, it was reported that Draper has tonsilitis, which makes losing a close-run semi-final against an in-form player more impressive, and makes more sense of what we saw over the week. Hopefully, he’ll be able to recover by Wimbledon.
Meanwhile, Alcaraz is going to find Lehecka – one of the few people he’s lost to this year – a handful, while the media are going to mention the fact that he’s on his longest match-winning streak. It’s clear that he didn’t want to lose as early as he did at Queen’s last year, and he's certainly finding a good level on grass. (And he will know, if I did, that Sinner lost to Bublik in Germany this week.) It's not the Alcaraz vs. Draper rematch that everyone wanted, but it's not too shabby either.
Positivity from Draper from the start of the second set, though. He was winning his service games easily and starting to put more stress on his opponent with his return position. He started seeing more second serves, getting into more points, piling more pressure of Lehecka, who had to defeat a lot of break points. The pressure turned into scoreboard pressure too as Lehecka served at 4-5, and Draper bossed the game, having to wait for confirmation that his winning shot was in because the crowd’s cheer was so loud. Basically, Draper looked like the top 10 player here, and Lehecka had lost his first set in these championships.
Draper was serving first in the third set and serving well, but Lehecka was doing a better job in his service games than he had in the second set. But as we approached the second half of the set, Draper’s first serve deserted him. Although he was still winning a high number of points on second serve, it made life more difficult. Lehecka was still serving well, and at 5-5, a game of few first serves, broke. (Draper’s racquet got thumped, in an explosion that gave him a grazed knee.) Lehecka was impressive in serving it out for his first grass final (after sitting out the grass season last year with his injury) when his game really suits the surface.
There was a bit of padding, because there was a bit of rain, with the second semi delayed until 4 o’clock or so. Two Spaniards, the eldest of whom had been up late playing a three setter the night before, the youngest of whom had won their last two matches. As they were Roberto Bautista-Agut and Carlos Alcaraz respectively, there was a clear favourite. And from the first point on, both of them were there to play, with Alcaraz determined to break. Bautista-Agut had to play well to fend him off, and eventually cracked. No problem on Alcaraz’s serves (I was particularly impressed by what he was doing on his second delivery.) First set went to Alcaraz.
Bautista-Agut was still playing well, and although I think Alcaraz was experimenting a bit, relearning grass, still, he was in no danger of a lapse in concentration, because he expected to break at some point. Which he did.
We had an annoying switch of channels mid game late in the second set. To his credit, Bautista-Agut did not go another game down, and actually saw some break points in an Alcaraz service game, but Alcaraz’s forehand saw him through. (Also everything else about his game.)
In the middle of all this, it was reported that Draper has tonsilitis, which makes losing a close-run semi-final against an in-form player more impressive, and makes more sense of what we saw over the week. Hopefully, he’ll be able to recover by Wimbledon.
Meanwhile, Alcaraz is going to find Lehecka – one of the few people he’s lost to this year – a handful, while the media are going to mention the fact that he’s on his longest match-winning streak. It’s clear that he didn’t want to lose as early as he did at Queen’s last year, and he's certainly finding a good level on grass. (And he will know, if I did, that Sinner lost to Bublik in Germany this week.) It's not the Alcaraz vs. Draper rematch that everyone wanted, but it's not too shabby either.
