Jiri Lehecka has surprised sixth seed Felix Auger-Aliassime on Sunday to surge into the Australian Open quarter-finals in solely his fifth Grand Slam look as yet one more seed fell to finish the “Netflix curse”.
The 21-year-old Czech was knocked out within the first spherical on the 4 majors final 12 months however was too sizzling for the sixth-seeded Canadian on Margaret Court Arena, profitable 4-6 6-3 7-6 7-6.
It was his first defeat ever of a top-10 participant and constructed on his victories over ATP Masters 1000 champions Borna Coric and Cameron Norrie in earlier rounds.
“Honestly, it feels amazing,” mentioned Lehecka, who has climbed 70 locations within the rankings over the previous 12 months to 71.
“It’s tough to find the words because what I’ve been through in the last year and now coming back to Australia.
“After losing in the first round last year, if someone had told me before the tournament that I would be playing like this, I wouldn’t have believed them.
“I’m super happy and excited.”
It might also be unhealthy news for Netflix if it hopes to proceed its collection Break Point as Auger-Aliassime was the tenth and last individual to fall from the primary a part of the collection.
For the file, Nick Kyrgios, Ajla Tomljanovic and Paula Badosa pulled out earlier than the event started, Matteo Berrettini was a primary spherical casualty, Ons Jabeur, Casper Ruud, Taylor Fritz and Thanasi Kokkinakis went within the second spherical, Maria Sakkari was a 3rd spherical exit and now Auger-Aliassime fell within the fourth spherical. Technically the fourth spherical is the second week of the grand slam however because the event started final Monday, the curse might have caught on a technicality.
Auger-Aliassime laughed off the curse after his third spherical win over twenty eighth seed Francisco Cerundolo on Friday, saying: “My girlfriend showed me today. I wasn’t aware.
“I was aware that players were losing, I’d see players were losing, but it didn’t cross my mind until, yeah, she showed me the thing this morning. I thought it was funny.
“I don’t know. I don’t think it’s connected. Maybe the players that lost, maybe they do feel like it’s connected somehow. I don’t think they do. But, yeah, so funny how things work out sometimes.”
Yesterday, Tomljanovic revealed she would miss months of the season after he knee damage, tweeting: “Can we stop with the Netflix curse lol…it’s just sports”.
Some of the celebs laughed off the curse however it’s not wanting so laughable now.
Hilariously, Netflix UK and Ireland’s Twitter account modified its bio to learn: “The #NetflixCurse is not real.”
Lehecka will play the winner of a blockbuster night conflict between Greek star Stefanos Tsitsipas and harmful Italian fifteenth seed Jannik Sinner.
Tsitsipas is the very best seed left within the draw at three following Rafael Nadal and Casper Ruud’s early exits and has but to drop a set.
Sinner is in search of revenge after shedding to him within the quarter-finals final 12 months.
Before his exploits at Melbourne Park, Lehecka’s greatest splash got here final February in Rotterdam.
As a qualifier he superior to the semi-finals with wins over Denis Shapovalov and Lorenzo Musetti earlier than pushing Tsitsipas to a few units.
