Get to know Lehecka, who is in the Adelaide final

Australia brings the best out of Jiri Lehecka.

Last year, the Czech advanced to the quarter-finals at the Australian Open. On Saturday he will try to lift his first tour-level trophy when he faces Jack Draper in the Adelaide International final.

So what is it about Australia that Lehecka loves? ATPTour.com caught up with the No. 32 player in the Pepperstone ATP Rankings to discuss Australia, last year’s quarter-final run in Melbourne, his off-court interests and much more…

You perform well in Australia, what do you like about the country?
It's just amazing to be here in Australia. It's just something totally different than any other country. It's so chilled here. It's a great atmosphere. Together with the weather, with the playing conditions, it's just an amazing place to start the year. I love the sporting environment. My coach went to watch cricket here recently and I love to get outside and enjoy the culture. The food is great too.

Last year you advanced to the quarter-finals at the Australian Open. How do you reflect on that run?
I always remember and I always think about that run when I'm not feeling good because that was a moment when I played my best tennis so far and it's just very nice to come back again to the same spot. To see if I can do the same thing again, or maybe better. It was a great amount of experience for me. I gained points, experiences. I met new people and everything. I can't wait to go to Melbourne again.

For fans who are still getting to know you, how would you describe yourself?
I think people will see me as a focused guy. When I'm on court I am very focused on what I should do, even when I'm practising. But in the end I'm just having fun. I'm a fun guy to be with. I'm really trying to divide these two things. To show some of my own personality, which is why I go fully into everything I do.

What do you like to do when travelling on Tour?
I play some games, card games. I like to watch Netflix. I like to spend time with my team, just hanging around and speaking about some unimportant things. The quality time is the best I can have.

It gets competitive. When we were in Perth, Marketa Vondrousova is crazy competitive. She likes to play these games all day, which is so funny because she hates to lose. And I also don't like to lose. When you have that combo when you are playing for such a long time, you just forgot what the time is. It is just fun. Everyone in the team, they enjoy the time. Then back on the ATP Tour, it's just me and my coach here, so it's more between the two of us. We are used to each other, so that's good.

What's a challenge you've overcome that has shaped who you are today?
There were many challenges because it is also very nice for me and for my coach Michal Navrati. We have been on this path together for a long time. He started coaching me when I was 17 years old, now I'm 22. So it's already five years working together. We speak about when I was playing at the Futures in the first few years. Now playing here in Adelaide, being seeded, playing big tournaments. That's something we speak about a lot and we see that we are on a good path.

If you were to give advice to your younger self, what would it be?
Not to stress about things so much because it will end up Ok. When I was younger, I was stressing so much about having everything completely perfect, being 100 per cent ready and I did all the things around the sport so perfectly that sometimes I lost my mental strength, which I needed on court. That's probably something I would say to myself when I was younger, just to think about priorities when I'm at a tennis tournament and just to try think about what's really important and what's not.