Jiri Lehecka takes racquet out of Rafael Nadal's hand with potent Madrid performance

“This is ready, aim, fire tennis.”

That was how Jim Courier summed up Tuesday night’s display between Rafael Nadal and Jiri Lehecka when on the call for the Mutua Madrid Open fourth-round clash.

In the end, it was Lehecka who brought more firepower to his targets and consistent feel at the net to deliver an all-around brilliant performance. The 22-year-old dashed the five-time champion’s hopes of extending his stay in his (likely) final event appearance with a 7-5, 6-4 victory.

The world No. 31, who crossed the finish line shortly after midnight, is the lowest-ranked player to beat Nadal in a Masters 1000 clay-court match.

“It was like I was in another universe. This is something I have never experienced before in my life on the tennis court,” Lehecka told ATP Media afterwards. “Twelve, thirteen thousand people screaming “Rafa! Rafa!” all over again before you’re trying to serve, I don’t really know how I managed to push through. But it just shows that I gained some experiences in the last two years and managed to use them today.”

Both competitors battled to take control of exchanges early, bringing plenty of intensity to the Caja Magica. Neither faced a break point until Lehecka saved one in the eighth game to keep with the home favorite.

Two games later, Nadal came within two points of the set by taking a more aggressive return position. The Czech pulled off a beautiful serve and volley, then fired a second successive first serve down the middle in handling the moment.

In the following game, Lehecka won a pair of longer rallies before Nadal botched a forehand volley to fall behind 0-40. The No. 30 seed sealed the crucial break by once again outfoxing Nadal at the net, then lit up his serve at love to decisively close out a one-set lead.

Lehecka kept the pressure coming from the baseline. He pounced on Nadal’s mishit forehand to produce a backhand winner for an immediate break and fought off the Spaniard’s push to deuce in consolidating his advantage.

Nadal valiantly fought off three break points in an 18-point game to bring the crowd to its feet. But Lehecka refused to flinch, firing unreturnable serves left and right to deny Nadal any hope of working his way back into their encounter. At 4-3, 40-30, Lehecka executed another perfect drop volley to silence the stadium. A late backhand from Nadal marked the end of his tournament.

Tuesday’s effort is the latest of an expanding 2024 highlight reel for Lehecka. In January, he celebrated his first ATP title by triumphing over Jack Draper and broke into the Top 25. At Indian Wells, he defeated Andrey Rublev and Stefanos Tsitsipas in succession to reach his maiden Masters 1000 quarterfinal before falling to Jannik Sinner.

He’s matched that result here and can make it a first 1000-level semifinal by overcoming third seed Daniil Medvedev, a 7-6 (3), 6-4 winner over Alexander Bublik.

Before waving farewell, Nadal was honored in a special tribute ceremony by tournament organizers on the court. What's next for the 22-time major winner? Nadal used his protected ranking to enter Rome, where he has lifted an all-time record 10 trophies.

I gonna try to play in Rome. That's another very special tournament in my career,” Nadal told press.

“I dreamed to play all these tournaments that I had success one more time. I missed Monte-Carlo unfortunately, that is one of the most special for me, but Rome is one of these ones that I enjoyed a lot playing there. So I want to go there. And I want to play well there. I want to be competitive. I want to give myself a chance to play good tennis, and I gonna keep working hard to try to make that happen.”