DAVIS CUP FINALS

November 20, 2025

Jiri Lehecka

Team Czechia

Press Conference

J. MUNAR/J. Lehecka

6-3, 6-4

Team Czechia - 1

Team Spain - 1

THE MODERATOR: We'll take questions for Jiri.

Q. Jiri, I just asked Jaume what the difference was, considering the last two times you played you won. He was saying the serve had a lot to do with it. What are your thoughts?

JIRI LEHECKA: Yeah, I would say that serve definitely was a key factor in today's match. He was serving pretty well. He was changing the rhythm on his serve pretty well, which gave me a lot of trouble.

Yeah, I think that also from the baseline I didn't really feel myself the first set. I felt absence of hours on that court because, of course, I didn't really have a chance to practice that much as when the format of the Davis Cup is normal - not this - which of course is same for everyone.

We have one center court for 40 players. In this case, of course there were players who adapted better. I wasn't one of them in today's match.

In the first set I still kind of felt that I'm getting along with how the court is behaving with the bounces, with the speed. But unfortunately in the second set when I started to feel better and more confident playing from the baseline, it was kind of too late because Jaume, he was playing very well today. He was already feeling that he has the advantage of an early break. He deserves to win, yeah.

Q. As far as the conditions are concerned, what was it specifically about the court that bothered you? You mentioned the bounce. What did you not like?

JIRI LEHECKA: I mean, I don't want to sound like I'm excusing my game to the conditions. That's definitely not the case. Today I was not the better player. That's the reason why I lost. He was playing very well. That's what I wanted to say.

Court-wise, my personal feeling is that the center court is little bit fast and the bounces are lower, much lower, than on the practice courts. Then in some details, it can bother you a bit. Me, I didn't really feel well on return. I think there was more mistakes than I wanted.

Other than that, Jaume, he was playing very well. I think he brought the level he wanted to bring. He was serving pretty well.

I kind of felt that in today's match I would have good pressure from his second serve. I kind of felt that difference. When he was serving second serve, I felt that in these moments I had a chance to kind of push through and to get him under pressure. But as he was serving pretty well his first serve, he didn't really give me many chances to put him under pressure.

So together with me not really playing well in the first set or in the beginning of the match, yeah, that's probably the result. That's probably what we saw.

Q. As far as yourself is concerned, how much more does it hurt? You felt things didn't go the way you wanted to play necessarily. The fact that there is the loss, how much more does it hurt with it being a Davis Cup match?

JIRI LEHECKA: Of course it hurts a lot. I mean, I wanted to win this match a lot. You don't play Davis Cup every week. It's different feeling, for sure.

But at the same time, the approach I need to have to this matter is that once you help the team, once you need the team to help you. I think that's the way how the Davis Cup should work. I can't win all the time, even if I really wanted to. Yeah, unfortunately today was not my day.

But I do really trust guys out there on the court. Jakub was playing very well in today's first singles match. Hopefully they will be able to win the doubles, then I can forget about today and we can all as a team focus on the next challenge if they made it happen.

That's something what I'm really hoping for.