Aslan Karatsev climbed on the ground in Madrid – Kommersant

The Mutua Madrid Open, a joint Masters 1000 competition between the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) and the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) with a total prize fund of €15.4 million, which continues in the capital of Spain, is going well for Russian tennis players so far. Karen Khachanov and Aslan Karatsev made their way to the 1/4 finals, beating Andrei Rublev and Daniil Medvedev in two games, respectively, as well as Veronika Kudermetova. At the same time, thanks to the Madrid success, Karatsev returned to the top hundred.

An unprecedented case: at the end of last week, six Russian tennis players immediately entered the third round of the Madrid “masters”. Daniil Medvedev, Andrey Rublev and Karen Khachanov were joined in the 1/16 finals by three players who made their way through the qualification – Aslan Karatsev, Alexander Shevchenko and Roman Safiullin. Moreover, the 22-year-old Shevchenko, who only entered the top hundred on April 17, and now entrenched in it, put up stubborn resistance to Medvedev on Sunday, losing to him in three games in almost three hours.

And then the Russians formed two pairs of 1/8 finals. The first was Khachanov and Rublev, who last met quite recently, at the same stage of the “masters” in Monte Carlo. Then Rublev turned out to be stronger, who took then the title, but in Madrid it turned out differently. The fate of the first set was decided in a tie-break, which remained with Khachanov, despite the fact that he was losing 4:6, and in the second set he managed to take someone else’s serve in the third game. As a result, Rublev, who won more points with active strikes (24 vs. 18) and made fewer unforced errors (23 vs. 27), was forced to admit defeat – 6:7 (8:10), 4:6. Thus, after the triumph at Monte Carlo and reaching the final in Banja Luka, he failed to continue his successful clay streak, but Khachanov’s 180 rating points earned for reaching the quarterfinals will come in handy. He came close to the top ten, where in a week for the first time in history three Russian tennis players could be at once. True, for this Khachanov needs to reach the final in Madrid. Meanwhile, in the quarterfinals, his opponent will be last year’s champion Spaniard Carlos Alcaraz, who so far looks unbeatable.

In another Russian meeting – the third racket of the world Medvedev with Karatsev, who rolled back beyond the top hundred in February, from the point of view of the position in the ranking, the favorite was obvious.

However, in practice, the balance of their forces was approximately equal. Karatsev’s victories over the Serbian Laszlo Jere, the Dutchman Botik van de Zandshulp and especially the Australian Alex de Minor said that he was regaining the confidence that allowed him to climb into the top twenty two years ago. And although Medvedev made the first break in the opening of the meeting, Karatsev immediately managed to equalize the game, and then retain the first set. In the second installment on the court, little has changed. Medvedev continued to be nervous, while Karatsev, with his clear and strong shots, completely controlled the situation on the back line. As a result – 7:6 (7:1), 6:4 in his favor. This means that according to the results of the Madrid tournament, Medvedev will not be able to seriously approach the first racket of the world, Novak Djokovic, from whom he is still noticeably behind. Karatsev returned to the top 100 and, judging by the level of his game, should rise much higher. True, at the French Open, the holder of three ATP titles, due to a low rating in mid-April, will most likely have to play a qualification – unless, of course, the organizers suddenly provide him with a wild card.

To this we can add that Veronika Kudermetova will play in one of the women’s quarterfinals on Wednesday.

Having defeated two compatriots in a row – Anastasia Potapova and Daria Kasatkina, she went to Jessica Pegula, whom she had never met before. The Russian ninth racket of the world according to the results of last year this season is not playing very well so far and has now dropped out of the top ten. Therefore, the victory over the American, who, on the contrary, has been performing very stably in recent weeks and now occupies third place in the world ranking, will help Kudermetova slightly improve her position. As for another Russian woman – 15-year-old Mirra Andreevawhich became the main discovery of the Mutua Madrid Open, then, despite the loss to the second racket of the world Arina Sobolenko in the 1/8 finals, she will rise from her 194th place in the WTA classification very much – by about 50 steps.

Evgeny Fedyakov