Jiri Lehecka arrived at the Miami Open as an underdog who refused to hide. The 24-year-old Czech produced a run that collided with Jannik Sinner’s all-court power in a final decided 6-2, 6-4. The scoreline does not fully capture the quality of hitting from both men or the narrow margins that separated them.

Sinner supplied the only two breaks Lehecka suffered all week, and the Italian converted two of 11 break points in the championship match. Before the final, Lehecka had faced just nine break points in the entire tournament. Nobody was able to break his serve until Sinner’s decisive combination of serving and returning. Lehecka still pressed: he came to the net 21 times and won 15 of those points, repeatedly testing Sinner’s passing shots on the quick Hard Rock Stadium court.

Lehecka’s path included wins over Taylor Fritz and Arthur Fils, with only Fritz taking a set from him. His game is built on heavy serving, the forehand plus-one, aggressive returns and angled volleys. That blend carried him to a career-best run, yet the final exposed the incremental gains still required to topple the very best.

“I came here not in good form, and I was able to come back to the tennis I want to play,” he said during the trophy presentation. “It’s never easy to stand here after losing a final like that, but if I need to lose against someone it’s you, Jannik.”

Lehecka’s progress has not been linear. He fractured a vertebra at the Madrid Masters, retiring from a Masters 1000 semifinal and missing two majors and the Olympic Games, which he called “painful.” He climbed to a career-high No. 16 by last September but was set back early this year by a strained ankle ligament. On the hard courts he admitted, “I wasn’t really happy with sliding on the hard court. I was little bit scared. [When] you are running for drop shot, you just need to go there 100%, convinced that you are going to win that point-not thinking about whether you should go there 100% or not.”

After the final he acknowledged Sinner’s resilience: “I think it show[ed] how great a player Jannik is, how he was able to come back in a crucial moment and how he was able to help himself with the serve,” adding that he had “probably” only a single chance to put a return into play. “Matches like today against these guys are showing me that there is still big, big, big room for improvement,” he said. “I played, in my opinion, very good tournament here. I was very satisfied with my game. But today I again saw that there is still somewhere to go, and that I will really need to keep improving more and more.”

After two days of main-draw action, the U.S. Men’s Clay Court Championship presented an irregular picture. In singles, every first-round match has been completed except one: Roman Burruchaga vs. Adam Walton. That match is scheduled for noon tomorrow on Court 3.

Doubles play has produced a similar anomaly. Ben Shelton and Andres Andrade have already recorded two wins to reach the semifinals, while the top-seeded pairing of Orlando Luz and Rafael Matos has yet to play. Tournament scheduling has pushed Shelton onto court early this week to reduce conflict with his singles commitments.

Defending champion Jenson Brooksby has been eliminated, but otherwise seeded players avoided opening-round upsets. Tuesday brought several clear results: No. 5 Brandon Nakashima defeated Martin Damm; No. 6 Tomas Martin Etcheverry ousted compatriot Federico Agustin Gomez; and No. 7 Alex Michelsen beat Coleman Wong.

Etcheverry closed out a grinding three-set match by winning the last 10 points. Michelsen, by contrast, was never in danger against Wong, who made his name at last year’s US Open as the 21-year-old who became the first player from Hong Kong to win a Grand Slam main-draw match and then added another win. Wong fell 6-4, 6-2, but produced one of the day’s most remarkable returns: a drop shot hit with so much spin that it bounced and landed back on Wong’s side of the net. Return ace.

Michelsen came to the net to congratulate Wong before the opponent later returned the favor.

Order of play highlights:
Tomas Martin Etcheverry vs. Alex Bolt (not before 3 p.m. ET)
Thiago Agustin Tirante vs. Mackenzie McDonald (to follow)
Ben Shelton vs. Zhizhen Zheng (not before 7 p.m. ET)
Tommy Paul vs. Adolfo Daniel Vallejo (to follow)

Spectators packed Court 3 at the River Oaks Country Club long before play began, many intent on seeing Ben Shelton up close. One fan, soon-to-be college student Sophia Ellis, summed up the urgency. “I got here an hour early,” she said, “It’s so crazy to see him up close.” Trinity Rodman was among those in the crowd as well.

The 23-year-old’s combination of power, presence and personality has become a draw at the Fayez Sarofim & Co. U.S. Men’s Clay Court Championship. Tournament director Bronwyn Greer, who has overseen this ATP 250 for more than a decade, tries to describe it: “It’s hard to put that into words,” she says. “He just, he has that mentality about him.”

Shelton paired doubles duty this week with former Florida Gators teammate Andres Andrade. “It’s cool to see people show up,” Shelton says about doubles. “I just enjoy the opportunity to have fun playing something that competitively I’m taking as seriously as singles, but probably having a little bit more fun out there.” He is already into the semifinals of doubles and begins his singles campaign on clay Wednesday night against Zhang Zhizhen.

On tour, Shelton has provided headline moments and close matches. Ranked fifth in the world last November, his season has included a run to the Australian Open quarterfinals, an ATP 500 title in Dallas in February and an 11-4 record through early events. He struggled in the March Masters swing, winning just one match across Indian Wells and Miami. He won this Houston title in 2024.

Peers and rivals take note. “When he’s on,” says Learner Tien, “it’s really tough to do anything.” Brandon Nakashima, who has played Shelton in 12 sets, notes the margins: “At this point,” says Nakashima, “given the head to head, it’s just a matter of trying something different out there, see what can disturb him from my side.” Frances Tiafoe put it bluntly: “He’s 12 years old, he’s Top 10 in the world.”

Greer sees the broader impact. “You gotta have them invested in somebody like Ben,” she says, and calls him “every 250 tournament’s dream.”