How demoralizing must it be for an opponent of Carlos Alcaraz's when they are playing at their best level and Alcaraz is still not having too many issues beating them. In the final of the 2025 HSBC Championships, Jiri Lehecka played admirably, but couldn't overcome the Spaniard.
Lehecka kept himself in the match by serving with precise brilliance. Alcaraz is usually a fantastic returner, and even he struggled with what Lehecka was doing. An issue for the Czech was that he was rarely able to get any points off the Spaniard's serve.
Lehecka would have defeated many other players on the ATP tour, and he performed as well as can be expected against the ATP No. 2, but he struggled to get Alcaraz to a break point on any service game.
Carlos Alcaraz defeats Jiri Lehecka in the final of the HSBC Championships
The deciding factor in a tight first set happens quite a bit with historically great players. They simply play better in the more important moments. At 5-all, Alcaraz got a break of Lehecka and then held serve.
Lehecka was able to force a tie-break in the second set, and the situation was seemingly in Alcaraz's favor. Heading into the match, the Spaniard was 11-4 in tie-breaks in 2025, while Lehecka was just 2-5. The Czech stunned nearly everyone, though, by taking the tie-break 7-5.
Perhaps the best shot of the entire tournament, though, went Alcaraz's way.
With Lehecka leading 4-3 in the tie-break, he hit a drop-shot that many players could not have dreamt of getting to, but Alcaraz did. Lehecka then tried pushing a shot past the Spaniard that few players could have returned, but Alcaraz not only got to the ball, he hit an incredible lob that Lehecka could not return.
ONLY. CARLOS. ALCARAZ.@carlosalcaraz #HSBCChampionships pic.twitter.com/x2LgY1vuz3
— Tennis TV (@TennisTV) June 22, 2025
As well as Lehecka was playing against the Spaniard, though, he should have high expectations for Wimbledon next week.
The third set proved to have far less drama. Lehecka appeared to tire and Alcaraz took advantage. Serving at 1-2, the Czech was broken, and all Alcaraz needed to do was hold serve, something that had been relatively easy for him during the match.
The Spaniard won the match 7-5 6-7(5) 6-2. He has won 18 matches in a row.
The title was Carlos Alcaraz's fifth of 2025, which is already one more than he had in all of 2024. The Spaniard is also just a bit more than 1,000 points away from ATP No. 1 Jannik Sinner. The Spaniard will have 2,000 points to defend at Wimbledon, but there is no reason to think he won't.
If Sinner suffers an early-round defeat, as he did at the Terra Wortmann Open last week, we could see a real battle for No. 1. The Italian reached the quarterfinals at Wimbledon last year, and while Alcaraz might have a difficult time overtaking Sinner at the grass-court major, it could set up a battle for ATP No. 1 the rest of the summer.