Two for one – Newspaper Kommersant No. 163 (7364) dated 09/06/2022

At the US Open, which continues in New York, the quarterfinalists have been determined. Among them was not Daniil Medvedev, who lost in four sets to the Australian Nick Kirios and failed to defend either his last year’s title or the title of the first racket of the world. But in the top eight of the last major of the season were Karen Khachanov, who coped in five sets with the Spaniard Pablo Carreno Busta, and Andrey Rublev, who had an almost perfect match against the ninth number of the rating of the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) British Cameron Norrie.

The fact that it was Karen Khachanov, and not Daniil Medvedev, who made it to the quarterfinals out of the two Russians who made it to the top half of this US Open, is a reasonable surprise. Still, at the moment, Khachanov is in the ranking exactly 30 positions below the first racket of the world, and his results during the American series, to put it mildly, were not impressive. At three tournaments in Washington, Montreal and Cincinnati, he won only two matches. However, do not forget that Khachanov’s career has already had three similar unexpected surges. In 2019, he seemed to have no special prerequisites for this, reaching the quarterfinals of Roland Garros, and last season he showed exactly the same result at Wimbledon, after which he won the silver of the Tokyo Olympics. That is, there is a definite trend. It feeds the belief that the task of returning to the top ten, which Khachanov himself set for himself, is already solved in the medium term, and once again speaks of his ability to prepare for the most important competitions. And in modern tennis with its overloaded calendar, this is a very important quality.

At the same time, it would be a big mistake to say that Medvedev was completely unprepared for this US Open. After all, on the way to the fourth round, as in last year’s victorious tournament for himself, he did not give up a single set. Probably, in his game there was no championship brilliance and lightness, which usually speaks of perfect form. However, in tennis, in which tournaments are held according to the Olympic system, which does not forgive even a tiny failure at any stage, one must always make allowances for the level of skill and playing style of opponents. Especially when it comes to such gifted and at the same time unpredictable characters as Nick Kyrios, who beat Medvedev for the second time in a few weeks, doing his best to defend the hopes of the Russian leader in the rating, which lasted a total of 16 weeks. , was crossed.

Their match was split into two parts. The first set was generally equal, and its key moments were the tie-break of the first set, during which Medvedev missed three set points, and the second game he took of the second set, marked by three double errors by the Wimbledon finalist. And in the second half, the Australian dominated.

After the meeting ended, Medvedev complained about a cold caused, in his words, by “crazy American air conditioners,” but he himself noted that a month ago in Montreal his throat did not hurt, and the final result was the same. “Nick showed tennis today at the level of Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal,” he stressed. Having lost leadership in the world rankings in a week, Medvedev, however, will remain one of the most realistic contenders for participation in the final tournament, which will be held in Turin for the second year in a row. And the next competition with his participation will be the Moselle Open in Metz, starting on September 19th. It is important that Medvedev showed up for the tournament in Metz in advance, clearly insuring himself in case of a New York failure. There, he will have the opportunity to slightly compensate for the loss of a large number of ranking points, which was the result of an early exit from the US Open bracket.

Karen Khachanov does not apply for a ticket to Turin yet, but against Pablo Carreno Busta he showed himself to be a great fellow. It was the Spaniard, who did not have the same bright charisma as Kyrios, nor the same incomparable sense of the ball, who won the same Montreal “masters” in which the Australian defeated Medvedev. When Carreno Busta is in a fighting state and combines the viscous style inherent in most of his compatriots with reasonable aggressiveness, playing with him is a real punishment, but Khachanov does it well. Starting from the semi-finals of the Tokyo Olympics, he defeats Carreno Busta for the fourth time in a row, although there were other times (the total score of their personal meetings has now become 6:3 in favor of the Russian).

Here everything was decided in the fifth set, the fate of which was predetermined by the quality of Khachanov’s serve. For the entire game, Carreno Busta managed to catch only two points on it, while the Russian made a break in the sixth game, and in the eighth, penultimate one, he had two match points. In general, Khachanov looks quite solid at the current tournament. Yes, in the previous three rounds, he gave one game to the American Denis Kudla, and the Brazilian Tiago Monteiro, and the British Jack Draper. But it never came to critical situations. As a result, Khachanov for the first time was in the top eight of the strongest participants in the US Open, having achieved unconditional success. Now he will face off against Kirios, with whom, by the way, he exchanged victories in the previous two matches, having played six tie-breaks in eight games. The Australian is, of course, the favourite. However, this New York quarterfinal will also be the first for him.

Andrei Rublev played his match against the ninth number of the world ranking Briton Cameron Norrie on Monday with the first start and did not drag out the case. It was naive to count on the fact that such a master as Norrie would easily give up the victory. But his tennis is still quite monotonous, and Rublev’s signature tactic, based on total pressure in draws on the back line, worked almost flawlessly in this case. The Russians did not interfere with two rain breaks in the second installment, during which the organizers first pushed the roof partially, and then to the end. In the third set, Norrie, however, tried to prolong his own torment by playing a break and making the score 4:4. But the final two games were left for Rublev. This convincing victory allowed him not only to reach the quarterfinals of the American Major for the third time, but also to significantly improve his position in the dispute for the right to play in Turin.

Evgeny Fedyakov