“Apologized to Me for His Mistakes”: Karen Khachanov Opens up Following Chain Umpire’s Faulty Call

Karen Khachanov expressed his thoughts after losing to British No.1, Dan Evans, in the quarterfinals of the European Open. During the opening set, Khachanov lost his cool on the chair umpire after he called the ball out, which apparently landed inside the baseline. However, the No.3 seed composed himself to wrap the first set 6-3.

Despite Khachanov being 4-2 up in the second set, Evans fought his way back to push the set into the tiebreaker. The Russian had match point at 6-5 in the tie-break, but Evans saved it to stay alive.

After a long rally at 7-7, Evans hit a cross-court forehand that seemed to have pitched in. However, Khachanov disagreed vehemently, leading to another heated exchange with the umpire.

After losing the second set, Khachanov got highly infuriated and showed his anger by kicking the net and smashing his racket twice on the umpire’s chair.

Karen Khachanov apologizes

Eventually, Evans won the deciding set 6-4  and booked his place into the semifinals. On the other side, Khachanov uploaded a story on Instagram, apologizing for his on-court actions.

The 24-year-old wrote that he talked to the chair umpire after the loss and apologized to him for his actions. He contended that his inability to control his temper resulted in him losing the quarterfinal clash despite having a match point.

“It was an emotional, complicated and difficult match today. I would like to say that after the match I talked to the umpire. He was really sorry and apologized to me for the mistakes he’s made during our match and I apologized to him for my (rude) behavior. At the end of the day we are all human and able to do mistakes. I didn’t want to insult anyone and act like this. I just couldn’t control my temper in those crucial moments-which in the end reflected on the result of the match.” wrote Khachanov on his Instagram story.

Evans will now face Ugo Humbert for a place in the finals of the European Open. If Evans lifts the title, it will be the third straight year a British player will win the title.