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Whereas the primary indicators of his incoming massive breakthrough got here taking part in clay-court Challengers in Czechia after the tour restarted, Aslan Karatsev has discovered success at ATP-level have come virtually solely on arduous courts. After a poor patch of play within the grass-court season and the latter half of the clay-court one, can the Russian recapture the magic and go on to be a menace to win massive occasions once more? His first-round efficiency to beat Tommy Paul on the Olympics tells us he simply may.
Karatsev went 15-1 in Prague and Ostrava final 12 months to jump 140 ranking places in three weeks. It allowed him to safe a spot in Roland Garros qualifying, however he would then fail to make the primary draw by shedding to Sebastian Korda within the opening draw. After final 12 months’s shortened clay court docket season had completed, Karatsev continued posting strong outcomes indoors and skilled arduous to be at his greatest for the 2021 Australian Open.
As a qualifier, Karatsev eradicated Diego Schwartzman, Felix Auger-Aliassime, and Grigor Dimitrov in Melbourne on his way to his first Grand Slam semifinal. Collectively along with his maiden ATP title at Dubai (already on the 500 stage) that he would earn in February, Karatsev compiled a 16-3 win/loss file on arduous courts within the first three months of the season. What’s maybe much more spectacular is the standard of the one opponents that managed to take him out – Sebastian Korda, Dominic Thiem, and Novak Djokovic.
That beast-mode model of Karatsev didn’t fully disappear coming into the clay-court season because the Russian would go on to attain three prime 10 wins in that a part of the season – over world #9 Diego Schwartzman, world#2 Daniil Medvedev, and the most effective one among them nicely in opposition to world #1 Novak Djokovic – the consistency within the outcomes simply wasn’t there anymore. Nonetheless a menace to defeat anybody on a given day, Karatsev’s hyper-aggressive playstyle misfired extra typically on the slower floor. Challenger Tour competitors wasn’t prepared for it, however plenty of the elite opposition was.
Karatsev went 9-6 on this 12 months’s clay-court season, making the ultimate in Belgrade the place he beat Djokovic (misplaced to Matteo Berrettini). That stated, he once more just about prevented disappointing losses, solely going out to the aforementioned Berrettini, Stefanos Tsitsipas, Reilly Opelka, Jannik Sinner, and Alexander Bublik. The one occasion the place he actually ought to have performed extra was the French Open as he was reasonably comfortably dispatched by the veteran Philipp Kohlschreiber within the second spherical.
With solely 5 skilled matches on grass earlier than this season, Karatsev’s efficiency on the garden was beneath an enormous query mark. Regardless of seemingly nicely suited to the floor along with his playstyle, the Russian clearly couldn’t embrace its distinctive challenges and struggled all through his three matches, scoring the one win over World No. 171 Alejandro Tabilo, a clay-court specialist.
After virtually 4 months away from arduous courts, Karatsev got here again to the floor that gave him essentially the most pleasure on the ATP Tour on the Tokyo Olympics. Paul bought a style of what 16 high quality opponents confronted earlier within the season. The Russian hits all the pieces quick off the bounce, by no means permitting his rivals any respiration house. This fashion could be very liable to unforced errors, however when all the pieces is clicking like on Saturday, there’s simply not that a lot the opponent can do. Karatsev dropped solely 13 factors on serve in your complete match and bought plenty of high quality returns in, breaking Paul 3 times to seize a clear 6-3 6-2 victory.
The 27-year-old will now get an opportunity to take revenge on Jeremy Chardy, who eradicated him within the opening spherical at Wimbledon. Karatsev will like his possibilities much more on the gradual arduous courts in Tokyo and he’ll do all the pieces in his energy to attempt to keep away from giving the Frenchman sufficient time to arrange his huge forehand. Fortunately for him, he’s bought a skillset designed to do exactly that. On the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, Karatsev can also be competing in males’s doubles (with Daniil Medvedev), and in combined doubles (with Elena Vesnina).
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