The 21-year-old finished last year as the runner-up of the Next Gen ATP Finals 2022, where he lost to Brandon Nakashima in the final.
On her way to her first Grand Slam quarter-final at the Australian Open earlier this year, Jiri Lehecka defeated the top two seeds, Cameron Norrie in the third round and Felix Auger-Aliassime in the fourth round.
Before heading to Indian Wells, the Czech player won 11 of his 16 appearances, most recently at the ATP 250 tournament in Doha, where he lost to Andy Murray in a three-set semi-final.
At the meeting with Arthur Rinderknech, thanks to his good serve ability, Lehecka repeatedly successfully neutralized the risk of losing the service game. The 21-year-old saved 6 of 9 break-points in the face, and won 72% of the first serve points for the whole match (38/53).
Her first Masters win at Indian Wells gives Lehecka a chance to meet sixth seed Andrey Rublev again. If he replicates his performance in the quarterfinals of Doha two weeks ago, the 21-year-old could face 25th seed Denis Shapovalov or Ugo Humbert in the next third round.
Elsewhere, Wu Yibing extended his winning streak to seven consecutive games since Dallas late last month – where he won his first ATP title, with a 6-7(6), 6-0, 7 comeback. -6(3) before Jaume Munar.
VIDEO: Wu vs Munar (first round Indian Wells 2023)
The whole match, the Chinese player scored 40 winner points, five times more than his Spanish opponent, and successfully took advantage of 5 of 12 break-point opportunities, to win tickets to the second round. There, he will meet 23rd seed Alejandro Davidovich Fokina.
In the middle of last month, Wu Yibing made history as the first Chinese male player to win an ATP tournament in the Open era. The victory over Taylor Fritz in the semifinals of the Dallas Open 2023 is also the first time a Chinese male player has defeated a top 10 opponent in the world.
