Karen Khachanov grew up with Australia – Newspaper Kommersant No. 11 (7456) of 01/21/2023

The first Russian tennis player to reach the fourth round of the Australian Open this year was Karen Khachanov, who defeated American Francis Tiafoe in four sets. The culmination of this meeting was the tie-break of the last game, during which the Russian lost 1:6. But the two-time finalist of the Australian Open Daniil Medvedev, in turn, sheathed the racket in the 1/16 finals, giving all three sets to another representative of the United States – Sebastian Korda. After the end of the tournament, the former world leader, who played with a slight injury to his right hand, will be outside the top ten for the first time since July 2019.

Actually, playing tie-breaks is not the strongest element of Karen Khachanov’s skill. And this, by the way, is rather strange, given that he owns a powerful serve, which is of key importance in critical situations. However, the fact remains that among the players in the top hundred of the world ranking in terms of the ratio of tiebreaks won over the past 52 weeks, Khachanov, with a rate of 42.9%, occupies a place at the end of the eighth decade, while Francis Tiafoe, his opponent in the Friday match of the third round in Melbourne, has 65.9% and stands there 12th.

In general, this dark-skinned American, who added very well in the second half of last season, has good relaxation skills and at the same time mobilizes the nervous system.

Say, at the last US Open, he won all six of his tie-breaks by reaching the semi-finals. Therefore, when in the tie-break of the fourth set of the match against the Russian Tiafoe pulled out far ahead, leading 6:1, it became almost obvious that the fifth set could not be avoided. However, here the most interesting began. Khachanov managed to take six points in a row – four on his serve and two on someone else’s, earning a match point. Tiafoe played it back, then got the sixth set point, but Khachanov held out again. And to reach the 1/8 finals of the Australian Open, where, unlike other majors, the Russian had never been before, he managed from the third match point. Cheerful Tiafoe, who turned 25 on Friday, left the court with an extinct look. Khachanov, on the other hand, giving an interview on the court to former world number one Jim Courier, who won the Australian Open twice in the early 1990s, certainly had the right to feel like a hero of the day.

On Sunday, the Russian will play with a miniature (170 cm), but fast Japanese Yoshihito Nishioka, who has not yet lost a single game at the current tournament. Of their three previous meetings, the most recent, in August last year in Washington, Khachanov lost – by the way, in two tie-breaks. But given that, in theory, in the 1/8 finals he was supposed to meet with Rafael Nadal himself, the option with Nishioka cannot be called otherwise than a gift of fate. Although they, of course, still need to be able to use.

Khachanov’s confrontation with Tiafoe completed Friday’s program on the third most important court of the tournament, and on its main arena named after Rod Laver, the last match in the schedule was Daniil Medvedev’s match with Sebastian Korda. It was clear in advance that it would not be easy for the Melbourne finalist of the last two years. Apparently, the American, whose father Petr Korda exactly a quarter of a century ago won his only Grand Slam title in Australia, is ready to break into the world elite this season.

But still, Medvedev was considered the favorite, and when, after an extremely unsuccessful debut, he managed to win back two lost innings, everything seemed to fall into place. However, Korda did not lose heart.

He rallied again, won a long tie-break of the first set, then confidently took the second set, and in the third, after the Russian, recouping, leveled the situation again, left him practically no chance at another tie-break. After the game, it turned out that Medvedev was a little worried about the ligament on his right hand, from which he removed the protective tape at the very beginning of the game. Perhaps because of this injury, he did not look very accurate and more passive than in the first two rounds. In any case, the current failure of the former leader of the world classification will significantly affect his position there. Having managed to defend only 90 of the 1,200 points he scored in Melbourne last season, Medvedev will fall from 8th to 12th, and maybe even lower, for the first time since July 2019, finding himself outside the top ten.

Evgeny Fedyakov