LONDON: Czech world number 30 Jiri Lehecka stunned Britain’s Jack Draper to reach the Queen’s Club final with a 6-4, 4-6, 7-5 victory on Saturday. Lehecka blasted 36 winners and hit 16 aces to end Draper’s bid for a maiden final appearance at the Wimbledon warm-up event in west London. The 23-year-old will face French Open champion Carlos Alcaraz or Spanish veteran Roberto Bautista Agut in Sunday’s final. “It means a lot. You don’t meet a player like Jack every day, he’s an amazing competitor,” Lehecka said. “It’s not easy to use my serve (on grass) but I’ve been working on it for the last few weeks. I’m happy with it.”

Draper was hoping to become the first British singles champion at Queen’s since five-time winner Andy Murray’s most recent victory in 2016. After booking his spot in the semi-finals Draper revealed he had held the Queen’s trophy as a child around 12 years ago. But Draper, ranked sixth in the world, will have to wait at least another year to get his hands back on the silverware after producing an unusually error-strewn display in sweltering conditions.

Lehecka had already ended the hopes of one Briton at Queen’s after beating Jacob Fearnley in the quarter-finals on Friday. The 23-year-old also defeated world number 12 Alex de Minaur in his opening match of the tournament, but knocking out Draper was his biggest scalp yet. Draper’s careless double-fault gifted Lehecka a break in the opening game of the first set. The ice-cool Lehecka ignored the searing temperatures as he cruised through the rest of the set. Draper needed to apply pressure on Lehecka to get back in the match and he did exactly that in the fourth game of the second set.

Even then, Lehecka staved off four break points and repelled another in the sixth. But Draper kept slugging away from the baseline and finally landed a big blow with a winner down the line on set point. Rock legend and avid tennis fan Jon Bon Jovi, watching in the stands, rose from his seat to salute Draper’s gritty fightback. Draper had been living on a prayer for two sets and his luck ran out in the 11th game of the deciding set when Lehecka crushed a backhand winner to break. Smashing his racquet into the advertising boards in frustration, Draper couldn’t muster a response and Lehecka was soon celebrating his memorable success. — AFP