Ruthless, flawless, and effortless, well, that’s how we have to sum up Jannik Sinner’s third-round match against Jiri Lehecka. After serving a three-month ban, the world No. 1 returned to action in front of his home fans at the Italian Open earlier this month. But over there, he went down to his fierce rival, Carlos Alcaraz, in the final in straight sets. But despite that loss, he didn’t look disappointed. Instead, he said, “[I am] very happy about this tournament. It gives me hopefully confidence to play some good tennis also in Paris.” Talking about playing with confidence, well, Sinner is yet to drop a set at the 2025 French Open. He recently outclassed Lehecka within just 94 minutes. What was his opponent’s reaction to seeing such a dominating performance from the three-time Grand Slam champion?

Well, the 23-year-old Czech, Jiri Lehecka, started the season with a bang, clinching the title at the Brisbane International. Following that, his next biggest success was defeating Carlos Alcaraz in the quarterfinal of the Qatar Open. Then, before this tournament, he had also reached the quarterfinal in Hamburg. Following these impressive runs, he was considered a real ‘dark horse’ in this tournament. But Jannik Sinner not only sent a letter of intent through his performance in the third round but also brought Lehecka back to reality.

After getting thrashed by Sinner by a 0-6, 1-6, 2-6 margin, the Czech appeared at the post-match press conference. During that, he was asked to reflect on his thoughts on this match. In response he first said, “I felt like I’m playing against myself, but he’s two times better at everything.” Although he claimed the conditions were a bit different today, he still thinks it wouldn’t have changed much with the way Sinner set things rolling right from the word ‘go’ in this epic battle. With this win, Jannik Sinner has now taken his H2H record to 3-0 on the main Tour against Jiri Lehecka.

Further on during the press conference, when he was asked to share his actual thoughts when he was 0-6,0-5 down, Lehecka said, “I mean, of course. Everyone could see what was happening today. I’m very happy I won at least 1 game. The way Jannik played and how he approached the game, and how he was killing me in basically everything that was happening on court, I think these 3 games were a big success for me today. So it is how it is. I don’t really think I would’ve done something differently.”

He continued, “The thing I want to say is that he just played an incredible match. I felt like my game today wasn’t as powerful because of the conditions… Because we were supposed to play on Chatrier, they changed it for Suzanne Lenglen. We warmed up with a closed roof. Before the match, they opened it. The balls were heavy. Humid conditions. Very slow balls today. I felt that with these conditions, it’s taking away my power a bit. It’s taking away my small advantage on the serve, which I hoped I would have.“

Having said that, he also said, “But with him, I felt it didn’t really bother him. He didn’t really care. He was playing focused. He was playing exactly how he wanted to play. The crowd was amazing. It was kind of funny that they were cheering for me like that. I think it was more ironic for me at that moment. What to do? I just got my a– kicked today. He was better in everything. He’s the world #1. If I would lose a match like that to a qualifier I’d be much more pissed about that. Even his coach came to me after the match and said Jannik was playing very very well today. It is how it is. For me to play the 3rd round on clay here at Roland Garros, two good wins. It was a good tournament.”

It was a near-flawless performance from the Italian. Sinner dropped just nine points on the serve across the match, and with this, he has now extended his winning streak to 17 matches at the Grand Slam tournaments. What was Jannik Sinner’s reaction after securing this comfortable victory?

Jannik Sinner dedicates his win to his coach, Simone Vagnozzi

Interestingly, the Italian star has not lost a match at a major tournament since the QF defeat to Daniil Medvedev at Wimbledon last year! Quite staggering, isn’t it? In the 21st century, only tennis greats like Novak Djokovic (30), Roger Federer (27), and Rafael Nadal (25) have won more consecutive Grand Slam men’s singles matches than Jannik Sinner. Not only that, he’s now also the Italian man with the joint-most number of wins at the major tournaments in the Open Era. What was his reaction after the win against Jiri Lehecka, though?

After the match, he said, “I was playing really really well. Especially for two and a half sets, then he was serving very well, very brave. He made some good serves and volleys. But I’m very happy. Simone [Vagnozzi], my coach, had his birthday yesterday, and usually when he has his birthday, I don’t play well. So this win is for him.”

Interestingly, Coco Gauff’s ex-coach, Brad Gilbert, also reacted to his incredible performances. He tweeted, “The most underrated shot is the hard neutral ball cross-court @AndreAgassi was the best i’d seen until Djoker @DjokerNole (Novak Djokovic) took it to another level, now Sin City 🌆 @janniksin (Jannik Sinner) is amazing 🤩 at this.” He further added, “You win tons of points just asking questions of your opponent and force them into bad decisions.“

Next up for Jannik Sinner is Andrey Rublev. He has a 6-3 record against the Russian. Interestingly, in 2022, Rublev had met Sinner in the R16 of the French Open. The Italian doesn’t have a fond memory of that meeting. Can he keep his winning run intact in this edition?