Carlos Alcaraz vs Jiri Lehecka Tips, Prediction & Live Stream - Alcaraz to battle his way into Doha semi-finals

Alcaraz is aiming to win multiple hardcourt titles in the first half of the year for the first time and the Spaniard will fancy himself to do just that in Doha this week after taking out the Rotterdam silverware earlier this month. I'm backing Alcaraz to emerge triumphant here, but not without a battle - Lehecka has proven an extremely dangerous opponent for the top players and the Czech has stormed into the Doha quarter-finals without dropping more than four games in a set. Three of Alcaraz's last four matches have gone the distance, so the Spaniard to prevail in three sets offers value, with the best bet being Over 21.5 total games.

Alcaraz leads 1-0, winning their only previous meeting 6-2 6-3 in the second round of Queen's Club on grass in 2023.

Alcaraz is attempting to make up for a disappointing January by going undefeated throughout the month of February - and so far so good in that regard.

After crashing out in the Australian Open quarter-finals to an injured Novak Djokovic, Alcaraz returned to action in Rotterdam earlier this month, where he defeated Hubert Hurkacz and Alex de Minaur in back-to-back three-setters to win his first tour-level indoor title.

Hoping to continue his winning momentum in Doha, Alcaraz has advanced to the quarter-finals with victories over Marin Cilic and Luca Nardi.

However, Alcaraz once again suffered from one of his trademark concentration lapses against Nardi, being dragged into a deciding set despite leading 6-1 4-1 before eventually prevailing 6-1 4-6 6-3.

It's been a tremendous start to the season for Lehecka, who has lost only one completed match heading into this contest - and that was against Novak Djokovic.

Lehecka launched the season with a title at the Brisbane International and continued his run with a fourth round showing at the Australian Open, where he went down to Djokovic.

The Czech, who has a history of injury problems in his short career, was forced to retire against Hurkacz in the second round of Rotterdam, but clearly it wasn't a serious issue.

Lehecka has stormed through the Doha draw to make the quarter-finals, defeating Grigor Dimitrov 6-4 6-4 and Fabian Maroszan 6-4 6-2.