via Reuters
Tennis – Australian Open – Melbourne Park, Melbourne, Australia, Russia’s Aslan Karatsev reacts during his fourth round match against Canada’s Felix Auger Aliassime REUTERS/Jaimi Joy
via Reuters
Tennis – Australian Open – Melbourne Park, Melbourne, Australia, Russia’s Aslan Karatsev reacts during his fourth round match against Canada’s Felix Auger Aliassime REUTERS/Jaimi Joy
Russian tennis player Aslan Karatsev stunned the tennis world after making it to the semi-finals of the 2021 Australian Open.
Before the event, Aslan was the World No. 114, and he had never beaten anyone in the Top-40 before. He came to Melbourne as a qualifier and within a span of 2 weeks, he beat a Top-10 player and 2 Top-20 players.
In the process, the Russian became the first man in the Open Era to reach the semi-finals of a Major on their debut. It was an incredible achievement, which is why it is worth knowing more about him.
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via Reuters
Tennis – Australian Open – Melbourne Park, Melbourne, Australia, February 16, 2021. Russia’s Aslan Karatsev in action during his quarter final match. It was against Bulgaria’s Grigor Dimitrov REUTERS/Kelly Defina
Early Life of Aslan Karatsev
Aslan Karatsev was born on 4th September 1993 in Vladikavkaz, Russia. When he was 3 years old he moved to Israel where he trained under his first coach Vladimir Rabinovich. At the age of 14, Aslan moved back to Russia and has represented his country ever since.
Professional Career
As a professional tennis player, Karatsev did well at Challenger and Future events where he won 9 titles. However, Aslan didn’t do too well at the Tour-level tournaments.
The Russian reached the main draw at very few many ATP events and had only played 13 matches on Tour winning 3. In addition to that, he failed to make the main draw at 10 Grand Slams. Clearly, this was not the career he was hoping for.
via Reuters
Tennis – Australian Open – Melbourne Park, Melbourne, Australia, February 16, 2021 Russia’s Aslan Karatsev reacts during his quarter final match against Bulgaria’s Grigor Dimitrov REUTERS/Kelly Defina
Australian Open Success
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Karatsev was 27 and he hadn’t enjoyed any major success. Many people would have assumed that it was all over for him but the Russian didn’t give up. Through some amazing tennis, he finally made it to the main draw of the Australian Open.
There, Karatsev continued his great run of form and scored his first big win against Diego Schwartzman. He went on to beat Felix Auger-Aliassime and Grigor Dimitrov to make it to the semi-finals of the event.
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Now, the Russian will either face Alexander Zverev and Novak Djokovic. They are both amazing players, which is why it will be challenging for Aslan to beat them. However, it isn’t impossible and we can expect Karatsev to give his best shot at doing so.
