His run of form is almost eerily similar to Grigor Dimitrov at his peak- who in 2017 won Cincinatti, the ATP Finals, and competed at the highest level in the Australian Open semi-final against Rafael Nadal, which went to 5 sets. Khachanov is clearly an unbelievable player, but his best and his worst is so astronomically different. Nevertheless, the inconsistency of Khachanov is worrying. It was far and away the best performance from Khachanov in a major in a long long time- and what a way to do it than in New York.
Khachanov showed extraodinary poise in key moments, and his serve almost never failed him at key junctions of the match where Kyrgios was able to obtain break points. He had to do it the hard way though, toppling arguably the most in-form player of the last 3 months. However, something clicked again at this year’s US Open- and now he is into hist first grand slam semi-final of his career.
In the last 3 years, Khachanov has also struggled to perform at Masters 1000 events, having lost in the 2nd and 3rd round in 18 of the last 20 Masters 1000 events. It is the curious case of Karen Khachanov, a player that can produce some of the highest level of tennis when he is on, and can also lose to an unranked qualifier when he’s off.įor instance, at last year’s US Open, despite winning Olympic silver, Karen Khachanov was beaten in the 1st round by Lloyd Harris, in 5 sets. Despite having never made it past a quarterfinal at a major, Khachanov saved his best tennis for a stage which mattered so much to him. However, in an event that stunned the tennis world, Karen Khachanov came from left field to take home the prestigious silver medal at the Summer Games. On the tennis side, many pundits predicted Novak, Medvedev and potentially Tsitisipas or Zverev, to be the 3 medallists at the Olympics. Despite the ban on fans in many events- the 28th Olympic games took place, in all its glory, a spectacle to behold given the unbelievably tough year the world had to go through. Due to the novel coronavirus outbreak which had shocked the world in 2020, the event was rescheduled and played in the middle of 2021. The 2020 Tokyo Olympics was one of the most unusual Olympic formats in recent memory. Khachanov then awoke at the Olympics of 2021. He then had a glimmer of results in the early half of 2019, before withering away for almost 2 years. In 2018 for instance, he won the Paris Masters by defeating Novak Djokovic. Out of all players over the last 20 years, you will find few players who have such an extraordinary gulf between their highest and base levels. However, there is a very good reason why this is the case. Karen Khachanov has to be the most slept on player in recent memory. Prediction: Karen Khachanov to win in three sets.By Myre Aberdan 7 months ago Follow Tweet
GRIGOR DIMITROV VS KAREN KHACHANOV FREE
But if he continues to concede too many free points or easy let-offs, his opponent will not take long to capitalize. If he can a find a way to be patient with his game and wait for the right opportunities to attack, he could do plenty of damage against Khachanov. Even in his match against Alex de Minaur at Antwerp, Dimitrov was going for too much too early in the rally, which ultimately cost him. The Bulgarian has more variety in his game, and would be more comfortable in the longer rallies compared to the Russian.įor the 31-year-old, it will come down to keeping his unforced errors in check. Karen Khachanov will look to take control of the baseline using his massive forehand, but that's where Grigor Dimitrov might have an edge. And given the similarly aggressive games of the two players, it could well go down to the wire. This is a fairly well-balanced matchup on paper. Grigor Dimitrov vs Karen Khachanov prediction This will be the first career meeting between the two players, so their current head-to-head stands at 0-0.
0 kommentar(er)
