06.06.2018 19:46:04 | Jiří Veselý’s effort to retain the Czech tennis in the tournament took exactly 140 minutes. The Czech player entered the match against Ymer as a confident favourite. However, the Swede returned the balls like a tennis wall and it did not matter to him that he lost his first serve. Veselý saved his serve and the score was 2:0. Ymer then won six games in a row to 6:2! The longer they played, the more confident Ymer was and the more helpless Veselý became.
The more the defending champion tried, the more difficult it was for him with Ymer. The Czech player was making more errors but he was still leading 3:1 and 4:2 in the second set. Ymer did not give up. He reduced the opponent’s lead and then Veselý’s greater experience prevailed - 6:3. In the third set, the players battled for every fifteen. They both won their serves, even though Veselý had a harder time, and the score was 3:3. Veselý then lost his serve and did not level the score till the end of the match. He lost 4:6.
What decided the match? In the decisive set, Veselý did not serve well and lost the hope to win the fourth title on the largest tournament in the Czech Republic in a few minutes. “I’m on the verge of tears. There is no place for me in the top hundred with this tennis. No wonder I’m leaving it. My serve didn’t work, both my mind and legs were gone. My game didn’t have any idea,“ said disappointed Veselý after the match. He tried to change the rhythm of the game and vary the length of shots especially in the third set. It did not suffice to beat the opponent. “Those were only random attempts which didn’t have much chance of success. I just can’t play like this,“ said the last ousted Czech player.
