He eliminated Nadal and caused controversy with a phrase about a gift that Argentine Cachin asked for from the Spanish legend

Pedro Cachin gave a fight Rafael Nadal in a spectacular match at the Madrid Masters 1000, which ended with the Spaniard saying goodbye to this famous competition in his country. The stay of the tennis legend did not last long, because the current 31st position in the ranking Jiri Legecka in the end he won Rafa in round 16. One of the most significant images of this event was what the Argentine did in the previous match: he He asked for his T-shirt as a gift.

After this victory over Nadal, the Czech was consulted about the attitude of his South American colleague, and he formed an opinion that caused controversy among the environment. “I don’t know, I don’t know. Maybe it’s hard for me to say because I went on the court to win. And when you go out on the court and go for victory, it’s difficult for me to run after him and ask him for some things if he can give me something.

. I don’t want to seem disrespectful or anything. That’s the last thing I want. If you’re playing a game and you’re thinking about asking a guy to give you something, it’s a little weird in my opinion.. Everyone can have their own opinion on this, I completely respect what Pedro did. This is absolutely normal, I have no problem with it, but I wouldn’t do such a thing“Legetska said that he will meet Russian Daniil Medvedev in the quarterfinals.

Jiri is 22 years old, at the beginning of the year he achieved his best ranking (23rd place) and won the first title in his professional career. In this context, he scored the biggest victory of his career over Nadal: “I would have done it maybe after the tournament. I don’t know when I’ll see this anywhere. I would ask for a photo like I did after the workout. I did it because of course I didn’t know if I would have the opportunity to play him again or if we would play the match together. But if we’re talking about him giving me a T-shirt, I don’t know. I’m not going into the game with that intention, maybe I just have a different approach to it.“

This comment is due to the fact that the Czech athlete trained with the Mallorcan a few days before the fight: “When I trained with Rafa a few days ago, it was our first meeting.

. Here we finally managed to train together, and for both of us it was something new. We never crossed paths on the highway. It was very important for me to share the court with him before going directly to the match, because his game is very specific, on clay he is a player like no other.”

This question raised dust in the air and, contrary to what Lehecka said, the current WTA world number one appeared. Iga Swiatek support South Americans: “In fact, if I played against Rafa, I would probably ask him for a T-shirt too. Unfortunately, this will not be possible.”– he stated between laughs.

After the press conference, Cashen was consulted on this matter and he responded simply: “It was a dream for me to play against the guy I saw from my bed win Roland Garros in 2005.. He made a great gesture by giving me his shirt, it’s not customary to do that in public, I think he’s a wonderful person. I try to remember every dream I have, I didn’t do anything wrong by asking for his shirt, it gives me desire and strength. continue to meet great tennis players.” It must be remembered that the Argentine arrived at this competition after 15 defeats in a row and managed to stop the bleeding to such an extent that he almost struck Nadal.

The quarterfinal draw of the Madrid Masters 1000 will feature a duel Lechecka v. Medvedev

but there will also be an Argentine match Francisco Serundolo before North American Taylor Fritz. The winner of this last key will come out before the winner Andrey Rublev-Carlos Alcaraz. On the other side of the map is the Italian confrontation. Jannik Sinner and Canadian Felix Auger-Aliassime..

In addition to giving his opinion on what Cachin did, Lehecka also spoke candidly about the special atmosphere that reigned in Madrid in the presence of Nadal: “To share such a stage with Rafa, on clay and in Spain, is a dream come true. . I tried to focus on myself, on showing my game, on what I need to do well.”