Credit : UbiTennis
Bettors break their teeth, analysts fear him and it's a safe bet to assume that the Czech even remains a mystery in the eyes of his staff, given the incomprehensibility of his results.
Given the amount of players on the ATP circuit trying to make their way to the top, it seemed obvious that some would stand out. Players with distinctive games, incomprehensible results, eccentric characters, yet there's no player quite like Jiry Vesely.
As you may have guessed, Vesely is a bit like a lottery : pull the right ticket and it's an easy passage to the next round, buy the wrong one and it's time for a trap match.
Having once again shown flashes of brilliance in 2023, where nobody expected him to be, Vesely is a shooting star who deserves to be introduced to the general public.
Flashback to the career of a player who, despite being ranked 297th in the world, remains undefeated against Novak Djokovic.
Credit : Vesely defeating Djokovic at the Dubai ATP tournament, Credit : TennisTV
Nominated "ATP stars of Tomorow 2013", Jiry Vesely recently appeared to the Czech public as the long-awaited successor to Thomas Berdych.
Difficult indeed not to be charmed by the talent of a young player breaking into the top 100 despite being 20 years old.
Crowned in Auckland the following year after knocking off two top 10 players, the young Vesely's career seemed to be off to a flying start, his first full season on the ATP circuit being a complete success.
Vesely doesn't seem to be afraid of anyone. He is not an example of consistency, struggle to perform week after week, but his game and his flashes of brilliance make him an unpredictable player ready to explode at any time.
Credit : Vesely winning his first ATP title in Auckland,
Source : RTE
“It’s great to be successful at an early age at some point. But also I think you have to be prepared for it. I think I wasn’t really prepared for that"
Jiry Vesely
Suddenly, nothing... One of the circuit's young stars is gradually fading as the season goes by, his few good matches going unnoticed compared to the mountain of counter-performances the young Czech puts in week after week.
Vesely is no longer progressing, worse, he seems to be regressing, leaving behind many regrets for Czech tennis.
Having made a sensational entry into the top 100, Vesely is now flying under the radar of an elite now illuminated by brighter new stars.
An anomaly in a well-known career path
At the end of the day, there's nothing very special about the 30-year-old's career : a player who appears, stagnates and then disappears.
Such patterns have occurred before and will undoubtedly continue to occur in the future.
The story could well end there, but just when everyone seemed to have buried him in obscurity, the Vesely star still twinkles.
That's the fundamental difference between Vesely and any other player who's disappeared from the ATP circuit.
Where others never return, the Czech is a frequent author of out-of-nowhere dramatic comebacks worthy of a blockbuster script in which a veteran returns to the scene and takes down the current world's best player.
Vesely upseting Dominic Thiem at Wimbledon, Credit : Sofascore
If the Czech's performances are as impressive as they are surprising in the eyes of the fans, it's probably because the general public often underestimates what Vesely is really capable of.
A left-handed service that combines power and precision, super-powerful flat forehands as well as a backhand that offers an interesting counter-attacking option; Vesely’'s game is full of possibilities.
On top of that, the Pribram native is also a skilled volleyer and has a good hand in the short game.
"He's a tricky player , he understands how to play the point, he uses the angles well, he serves big, so he's tough"
Andy Murray
You guessed it, Vesely is a top player, a war machine, a 1.98m, 94kg tank!
The more perceptive may well be beginning to wonder whether such a large body is compatible with a sport like tennis, and rightly so, as it highlights the Czech's Achilles' heel : his ability to move.
Let's be honest Vesely sometimes seems to be in slow motion compared to his opponents, a perfect machine yes, but a motionless one...
What to expect from Vesely ?
At just 30 years of age, one of the ATP circuit's phenoms has reminded the tennis world that he is still capable of pulling off the comeback trick.
Consistency has never been the Czech shooting star's strong point, making it hard to predict his next appearance. However, let's pay particular attention to Vesely's performances on fast surfaces (indoor hard court, grass), which are particularly well suited to his game.
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