Sensational breakthrough: how Karatsev beat the 19th racket of the world and for the first time in his career reached the quarterfinals of the Australian Open

Aslan Karatsev continues to be one of the main newsmakers of the Australian Open tennis championship.

The debutant of the Grand Slam tournaments once again shocked the local audience, breaking the resistance of the talented Canadian Felix Auger-Alyassim.

Ranked 114th in the ATP rankings, the Russian lost the first two sets, but made an impressive comeback and made it to the quarterfinals.

Hardly anyone could have guessed in advance that Karatsev would become one of the main discoveries of the current Australian Open.

Until that moment, he had never managed to break into the main draw of the Major, plus everything, and the beginning of the season was not the most outstanding.

At the triumphal ATP Cup for Russia, he performed exclusively in doubles and failed to win a single victory.

Together with Andrei Rublev, he lost to the Argentines, and with Yevgeny Donskoy - to the Japanese and Germans.

The statistics could be even more disappointing, but the organizers considered it inappropriate to hold a meeting with no tournament value with the Italians, who had already lost hope of final success.

Nevertheless, Karatsev first confidently passed the qualification, during which he lost only one set, and then made his way to the third round.

True, although this event became significant for the 27-year-old tennis player himself, it hardly made an impression on fans and experts.

Still, the Russian was very lucky with the lot.

So, in the first round he was opposed by the 96th racket of the world, Gianluca Mager, and in the second - Yegor Gerasimov, who is 79th in the ranking.

The triumph in a duel with Diego Schwarzman was a real miracle, but for the most part it was perceived as a kind of anomaly.

The Argentinean clearly did not have the best match, confirming that he feels more comfortable on the ground.

It was on this surface that he won two of the three ATP tournaments, and also reached the final of the Masters.

In addition, the crushing defeat, although it was unexpected, did not generally contrast much with the last performances of the ninth racket of the planet in Australia.

Previously, he never went beyond the fourth round and already had the experience of failures in confrontations with not the most formidable opponents.

In 2019, he lost at that time to 33-year-old Tomasz Berdych, two years earlier - to Steve Darcis, who never rose above 38th place in the ranking.

In this regard, the meeting with Auger-Alyassim was to show whether Karatsev was worthy of the title of the main sensation of the Australian Open.

And after the first two sets, the majority was probably inclined towards a negative answer.

The Russian made 26 unforced mistakes and managed to take only four games, allowing the talented Canadian to lead without problems with a score of 2: 0 in lots.

After an unsuccessful start, Karatsev went to the room under the stands, and after his return he changed noticeably.

He began to act much more confidently and in the remaining three sets he made fewer unforced errors in total than in the previous two (20:26).

The percentage of the first serve has stabilized, no longer falling below 65%, doubles have completely stopped, and the number of actively won goals has become noticeably more.

Suffice it to note that in the first two games there were seven of them, and in one third - eight.

Auger-Alyassim was not ready for such changes in the opponent's game and got nervous.

Suffice it to note that over the next three sets, he made three times more unforced errors (32: 9), won only 18 out of 76 (23.6%) draws at the reception and did not earn a single break.

For comparison, Karatsev had nine chances to take the opponent's serve, four of which he used.

As a result, 3: 6, 1: 6, 6: 3, 6: 3, 6: 4 in favor of Aslan.

Thus, Karatsev not only made his way to the quarterfinals of the Australian Open for the first time, but also became only the seventh player in history who managed to reach this stage in his debut Grand Slam tournament.

The last time this bar was obeyed by Alex Radulescu, in 1996, reached the quarter finals of Wimbledon.

“At first it was very difficult to play with him.

He is a very good player and he plays very fast.

It took me two sets to find an approach to the game ... I feel good.

Tired, of course, a little.

But what was to be done?

I put everything into this match.

I am satisfied ... I will be ready for anyone, ”Karatsev said at the end of the meeting.

Another seeded athlete will try to prevent Aslan from becoming the first tennis player in history to reach the semi-finals of a Major through qualification.

In a sense, Grigor Dimitrov also made a sensation, in three sets having dealt with the third racket of the planet, Dominik Tim.

The Austrian did not perform at his level, personally “gave” the Bulgarian 41 points, and in the third set he was completely demoralized - 4: 6, 4: 6, 0: 6.

It should be noted that for Dimitrov, the current Australian Open may well be a return to its former heights.

Since January 2017, he has only passed the fourth round of the Grand Slam tournament three times, and the last time he did it in 2019.

Then he reached the semifinals of the US Open, where he lost to Daniil Medvedev.