Alcaraz rues error at Qatar Open quarter

Four-time Grand Slam winner suffered a shock loss to Lehecka

BENGALURU:

World number three Carlos Alcaraz was left ruing a mistake that let Jiri Lehecka off the hook in the third set and allowed the Czech to fight back and claim a 6-3 3-6 6-4 victory in the Qatar Open quarter-finals on Thursday.

Four-times Grand Slam winner Alcaraz led 4-2 in the deciding set and was 40-30 up on Lehecka's serve when the top seed netted a return to give his unseeded opponent the chance to hold.

Lehecka went on to win the remaining games and clinch his first victory over a top-three player.

"It was about one point. I think that's what makes tennis really difficult. One point makes a difference," Spaniard Alcaraz told reporters after his second loss of the year.

"At 4-2 break point, it was just a few centimetres down in the net, so it could turn the match completely. But then 4-3, he started playing great tennis.

"Probably I could have done a bit better from 4-3, but his game was incredible. He was returning pretty well, really aggressively, no mistakes, or almost no mistakes."

Top seed Alcaraz, who won Wimbledon and the French Open last year, said there was little he could have done differently.

"Next time, I just have to keep going when I am up in the match, with serves. But in my mind, I don't know what I could have done better, and I give credit to him," Alcaraz added.

Former Australian Open quarter-finalist Lehecka was elated after the win.

"For me to win a match like that against a player like this is a super big achievement. I believed in myself and knew I had the level to produce this kind of tennis," he said.

Lehecka faces Jack Draper in the semi-finals on Friday after the eighth-seeded Briton recovered from a set down to beat Italian Matteo Berrettini 4-6 6-4 6-3.

In the other half of the draw, fifth seed Andrey Rublev needed eight match points to finally beat Alex de Minaur 6-1 3-6 7-6(8) after frittering away a 5-2 lead in the decider.