DAVIS CUP MEDIA CONFERENCE

September 12, 2025

Jiri Lehecka

Team Czechia

Press Conference

J. LEHECKA/F. Tiafoe

6-3, 6-2

Team Czechia - 1

Team USA - 0

THE MODERATOR: Your thoughts on the match.

JIRI LEHECKA: Yeah, I think from my side it was a well-handled match. Of course every matchup against Frances is tough. You never know what to expect.

He is a very experienced player who loves to play in front of his home crowd. You know, so together with all the delays and the weather, which didn't really give us a chance to warm up properly, I think I handled it well.

Yeah, I think from my side, most important thing was to start well, because in the beginning, there was a lot of close games. Then in the important moments, I just kept applying the pressure on him. I just kept, you know, put the ball in play, made him suffer a bit to move more. That's something what I see as a key in today's match.

THE MODERATOR: Questions in English.

Q. I know it's a mostly American crowd, but you had a pretty substantial Czech crowd behind you guys on the bench. What was it like to have those folks cheering for you?

JIRI LEHECKA: Yeah, it's always super nice. These guys are traveling almost everywhere around the world, following us, cheering for us. You know, a small group of, I don't know, 15, 20 people.

But, you know, it means a lot for us, because we know how much time it takes and effort, how much effort does it take to, you know, take off your job, you know, and just travel around the world to follow your team, to follow us, and to cheer for us. Doesn't really matter if we win or lose.

So I think that that's something what makes Davis Cup so special, and that's something what makes competing on the Czech flag exciting and special at the same time, because it's just not something what you can experience every week of the year, every tournament.

I think that the crowd today was very, very fair from both sides. You know, American fans, they were really fair, and that's something that I enjoy, that they were of course cheering for Frances a lot, they were supporting him, which is nice, but at the same time, they were, like I enjoyed playing in front of them, as well. Because around the world, it's not usual to see a crowd which is that fair as I experienced tonight.

At the same time, you know, from our Czech fans over there, I saw a lot of Czech flags. It's just something what makes Davis Cup special and what I like about it. So I enjoyed it a lot.

Q. How was the court condition? Was it slippery? Was it heavy? What was it?

JIRI LEHECKA: Yeah. Actually, in the beginning of the match, as it was after rain delay, I didn't really know what to expect. I was a little bit concerned about if it's going to be slippery or not.

But the court was in very good condition, I would say. I didn't feel anything unexpected. I felt good. I felt that the court is behaving. The court behaves the same way as I experienced during the practice session during the week.

But of course conditions were a little bit different because we played in the evening, which is something we had no chance to try during the preparation week as it was raining all the time.

Yeah, that was something what I was a little bit thinking about, if it's going to be same or what kind of difference, what kind of difference will it be to play in the night, because we wanted to try to play in evening, you know, to prepare a bit more for tonight, but nobody gave us no chance.

So I kind of had a situation where I didn't know how it's gonna be. But, yeah, it was good. I must say that I felt comfortable, but at the same time, you know, the court is super slow. The bounces are taking rotations a lot. It's something completely different from what we experienced in the last month or two, you know, on the tour where the hard courts were in general a little faster.

But, yeah, that's the reason why we came here to Delray in advance, to prepare well, and I think that we did a good job. I'm very happy that I proved that today.

Q. First of all, congratulations on taking the first point for Czechia in this tie. We spoke to Frances, and he said something I thought that was pretty interesting. He stayed with you, and then he said when you got ahead, you were a great front-runner. You seemed to have all of the answers to all of the questions. He said once you got ahead, you just kind of were a real solid front-runner. Do you feel that way, that you just kind of stepped on it once you got ahead?

JIRI LEHECKA: Yeah, actually, I think that today also the surface played big role in today's match, because I think that Frances played a couple of very good points. He played them the way he's used to play them. But the surface didn't really help him, didn't really help him to be that aggressive, you know. A lot of, you know, approaches.

The way how the court is a little bit slower helped me, gave me a bit more time to see where I want to place that passing shot. At the same time, of course, I mean, in the beginning of the match, I think that there were very tight moments, and sometimes I was a bit more lucky. Sometimes I played just better.

But at the moment when I got ahead a bit, you know, of course the pressure goes a bit away from you, you know. You can feel a bit more relaxed, I would say. But for me today I was just trying to focus on myself on every point, because in Davis Cup, anything can happen in one moment.

So for me, the most important thing was, like, not looking at the score much. Just focusing on every point, on just each point by itself. Yeah, that was just something what I tried to do, and then, you know, I must say that I played pretty solid match today.

Today the performance and with the momentum I kept from the first set, I think that I kept it well, and I made it extremely difficult for Frances to come back into the match.

Q. You have kind of answered it, Tiafoe was coming in a lot and you were passing him. You mentioned slower court. Did you feel great with that passing shot? Seemed like you were really feeling it.

JIRI LEHECKA: Yeah, definitely. Today the passing shots, I was executing them much better than usual, that's for sure. I mean, I showed that I was fairly confident, and I took the time to see where is Frances going with that approach shot.

But I think that these two things came together in a way that of course slower court helped me to plan my passing shot a bit better. But at the same time, I think that the way how I executed them today was very good. So I was very happy with that.

Q. So what do you feel like you have to do tonight and tomorrow morning to prepare your match tomorrow? Depending how tonight and tomorrow's matches go, how do you deal with that pressure?

JIRI LEHECKA: Yeah, actually, I think that's something that what we gonna talk about with the team tonight. Of course it's never easy to get back on track, but I will do anything, everything I can to kind of get into the right position and to recover well and to kind of, just to get ready again, you know.

Of course I'm a bit tired, you know, but that's just something that's logical after the match like that. Yeah, we'll see how it goes. Of course we will see how Jakub will finish his match. It's going to be a great match, and I think it's going to be a big fight. But hopefully he can pull it off.

Yeah, we will see. I will try to do everything I can to be 100% available to the captain for tomorrow, and however he's going to decide, it's going to be his decision. I respect that, and I will try to do my best.