We are almost done with the 1/4th of the 2021 tennis season, and we already have someone who is having a breakthrough year on the ATP tour. Aslan Karatsev, the 27-year-old Russian, is playing the best tennis of his life right now and if he continues to play the way he has played so far, not only that makes him one of the favorites for the first Masters 1000 event, Miami Masters but also, we may see the hard-hitting Russian making his first ever appearance at the World Tour Finals, which will take place in Torino for the first time this year. I don’t think many of us would have predicted Karatsev to do so well and show the temperament that he has played with so far. I knew who he was before, but since I hadn’t seen him play anywhere, I knew very little about his game, but what we all have witnessed so far, man’s just on fire.
ATP Cup
ATP Cup was when I first saw Karatsev play. Team Russia already had two top-10 players in Andrey Rublev and Daniil Medvedev so getting an opportunity in singles was almost impossible for him. He partnered with Rublev in doubles in their opening tie against Argentina which they lost 4-6 6-7. The next day, he was joined by Russia’s playing captain Evgeny Donskoy against the Japanese duo of Nishioka and McLachlan which the Russian duo lost in the super-tiebreak. In the semis again, the duo of Donskoy and Karatsev couldn’t mount a considerable challenge against the German duo of Struff and Krawietz. The doubles match wasn’t needed in the finals as Andrey and Daniil brushed aside the Italians with ease.
I remember watching his backhand down-the-line which he used so effectively against team Japan, but had very little idea I would be getting to see a lot more of it and how (crazy how it was actually just a month and a half back) how it was going to.
Daniil Medvedev had very aptly described him as their secret weapon in doubles, and had high praise for his compatriot saying that even though he did not get a lot of games to showcase his talent, he’s a really good player.
Even Daniil would have been taken aback by the surprise to see Aslan making the semis of the Australian Open and making rapid progression in the singles rankings.
Australian Open
Aslan was ranked outside of the ATP top-100 at the start of the year and had never made a grand slam main draw before. Due to the lockdown and quarantine restrictions, the qualifying tournament for the Australian Open was played in Doha this year. He beat the Japanese Brandon Nakashima, Australian Max Purcell and Alexandre Muller of France in the final qualifying to book his place in his first ever grand slam main draw.
He started off his campaign against Gianluca Mager of Italy with a commanding 6-3 6-3 6-4 win. He was much more ruthless in the second round, brushing aside Egor Gerasimov of Belarus with a scoreline reading 6-0 6-1 6-0. At this point, I knew it wasn’t going to be an easy day out for Diego Shwartzman in the third round. Diego is one of my favorite players on the tour so I knew the kind of draw at the start and how these two would eventually meet in the third round, if Aslan manages to get through the second round. And it turned out more than tricky for the eighth seed, who was given no chance by Karatsev in that match, winning comfortably 6-3 6-3 6-3. We all know how Diego is likes to fight till the end and never gives up, but Aslan never really gave a chance to him, and was completely better on the day.
The fourth round was obviously going to be another tough test for the surprise package from Russia, who faced Felix Auger-Aliassime of Canada, the number 20 seed. Felix won the opening two sets easily with a score 6-3 6-1, leaving Aslan with all to do, if he wanted to keep his fairytale run going. And then we saw the real Aslan Karatsev, playing like the way he played against Diego, hitting the ball flat and hard, and ultimately the fortune favored the brave, when Aslan won the fifth set 6-4.
In the quarterfinal, he faced off with Grigor Dimitrov of Bulgaria, a former semifinalist in Melbourne. Grigor was fresh of his win against the current US Open champion and number-3 seed Dominic Thiem, who was clearly struggling in that game. Grigor drew the first blood, breaking Karatsev early and taking the first set 6-2. But then again, Karatsev said, hold on a minute, I’m not done yet, let’s extend the fairytale run to semis, and displayed some amazing tennis, holding on the challenge of the Bulgarian, to eventually take the next three sets 6-4 6-1 6-2.
By this time, we should also note that, he had been continuously till this point, from the qualifiers in Doha to ATP Cup at the Melbourne Park to the semifinal of the Australian Open. It’s challenging mentally as well as physically, since he has never been this further in an ATP tournament before, let alone playing 5-sets matches continuously over the two weeks. And another very important point is, when you reach a semifinal of a major, the task gets much more difficult because you meet one of the higher ranked opponents from the top-10 and the stakes get higher too. And whom did he meet in the semis? It was none other than the world number-1 Novak Djokovic, the 8-time champ of Australia coming in red-hot form looking for a record 9th title.
And that’s exactly what happened in the semis, when Djokovic stopped the juggernaut of the brave Russian, storming into the finals with a 6-3 6-4 6-2 win. Though we saw the flashes of Aslan’s brilliance, it wasn’t consistent enough to hurt Novak’s game, who didn’t miss much.
Dubai Open. His best achievement so far.
After his heroics in Australia, his next tournament was once again in Doha, where he went down fighting to the top-seed Dominic Thiem in 3-sets in the round of sixteen. But that is also when he won his first-ever tour level title in doubles, partnering his countryman Andrey Rublev, beating Marcus Daniel and Peter Oswald in finals.
He headed to Dubai next, where he played Egor Gerasimov in the first round, whom he also had beaten on the first round of Australian Open. In this tournament, he actually faced a lot more in-form and higher-ranked opponents. He beat Dan Evans of Briton and Lorenzo Sonego of Italy in three-sets to set up a mouth-watering clash against one of the next-gens in Jannick Sinner. Sinner took the first set in a tough tiebreaker before Aslan broke him early in second and third to win the match quite comfortably in the end.
That put him against Rublev, with whom he won the Doha doubles title a week earlier. Remember, Rublev has had an unbelievable run in the ATP-500 events winning 23 matches in a row and recently won the ABM Amro Rotterdam Open, so he has been in a red-hot form. Aslan beat Rublev 6-2 4-6 6-4 to march into what would be his first tour-level final appearance, ending Rublev’s brilliant run.
In the final, he met an unseeded opponent in Lloyd Harris, who himself was on a giant-killing run and on the hunt for his first ever ATP Tour level title. Aslan played a pitch perfect game and didn’t set a foot wrong in the final, taking down the South African 6-3 6-2 to cap of a memorable few days in the desert.
Style of play and what is making him so successful?
Starting from the serve, the 6’2 Russian has a decent serve which can give him some free points in the tough situations. Djokovic, who’s one of the greatest returners of serve in the world, picked him in the semis in Australia, but apart from that he’s very hard to break so far.
The backhand down the line is perhaps his favorite weapons and just manages to catch his opponents off-guard whenever he plays it. The forehand is like a bullet and Aslan doesn’t hold much back while going at it.
It’s almost like watching somebody play a video-game when he plays brave tennis like that, everything just comes of so easily, pushing the opponents behind and then painting the lines with the shots that he plays. The volley isn’t so bad either, surely needs some more work but most importantly, has come off on a few odd occasions when he’s approached the net.
Where was he before? Rankings before lead up to 2021 and what kept him away from being a top player so far?
According to various sources, Karatsev was a pretty decent player as a youngster coming through the ranks. But due to lack of funding and sponsorships, he couldn’t afford a top-level coach or training in a bigger academy, which didn’t help him take his game to the next level, where he could perform consistently with the higher-ranked opponents. Then after a few years, an injury set him back in his career, due to which he couldn’t be actively part of the tour.
He was about world number-127 at the start of the Australian Open. After his run to the semis, the 27-year-old rose to world number 42. He has come further ahead, to world number 27 now after his triumph in Dubai.
Going ahead
He already became the first man in the open-era to reach the semis on his grand slam debut, and he’s one of those late bloomers, who is just getting started. Hopefully, he can keep up the consistency and the great form and provide us with some amazing moments not only this year but also, going forward to the seasons to come.