This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Fyunck(click)(talk | contribs) at 08:23, 18 November 2021(He only makes the Masters Cup field if a 3rd player gets injured). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.
Revision as of 08:23, 18 November 2021 by Fyunck(click)(talk | contribs)(He only makes the Masters Cup field if a 3rd player gets injured)
Aslan Kazbekovich Karatsev (Template:Lang-ru; Template:Lang-he; born 4 September 1993) is a Russian professional tennis player. He reached a career-high singles ranking by the ATP of world No. 15 on 8 November 2021, and peaked No. 90 in the doubles rankings on 1 November 2021.
In February 2021, Karatsev went through qualifiers for the Australian Open. In his first main draw of a major, ranked 114th, he defeated 8th seed Diego Schwartzman, 20th seed Félix Auger-Aliassime and 18th seed Grigor Dimitrov to reach the semifinals. Karatsev is the first man in the Open Era to reach the semifinals in his Grand Slam debut.[2]
In March 2021, he won his first ATP title at the Qatar Open with Andrey Rublev in doubles.[3] A week later, as a wildcard, Karatsev won his first ATP singles title at the 2021 Dubai Open, beating South African Lloyd Harris in the final. Karatsev, who was unseeded and beat four seeded players to reach the final, joined Wayne Ferreira (1995) and Thomas Muster (1997) in this achievement.[4] As a result, he entered the top 30 of the ATP singles rankings for the first time in his career.[5] On 24 April 2021, Karatsev defeated the world No. 1 Novak Djokovic on his home court at the Serbia Open to reach the final.[6] At the 2020 Summer Olympics, he won the silver medal with Elena Vesnina in mixed doubles.[7][8]
Early life
Karatsev was born 4 September 1993 in Vladikavkaz. His father Kazbek Karatsev is an ethnic Ossetian and former footballer, and his mother Svetlana Karatseva is a medical doctor. Aslan has an older sister named Zarina.[9][10] Karatsev's grandfather on his mother's side is Jewish.[11][12] When he was three years old his parents moved to Israel.[13]
His first coach was Vladimir Rabinovich.[13] When he was 12, he moved back to Russia, with his father, because of funding limitations in Israel. This time he moved to Taganrog where his new coaches were Alexander Kuprin and Ivan Potapov. From 2011 to 2013 he was coached by Andrey Kesarev.[14]
Karatsev fluently speaks Russian, Hebrew and English, and holds dual Russian-Israeli citizenship.[15][16]
Career
Junior career
Karatsev played his first junior match in September 2007 at the age of 14 at a grade 5 tournament in Russia. Although being his junior debut, it would be his only junior tournament until May 2009 where he started to play consistently in junior tennis. He made his junior grand slam debut at the 2011 Junior French Open after qualifying for the main draw but lost in the first round. He then participated in 2011 Junior Wimbledon with resulted in him again losing in the first round and then the 2011 Junior US Open where he won his first round match but lost in the second round. In doubles, he was known for partnering good friend Evgeny Karlovskiy in most tournaments and the pair made the quarterfinals of the 2011 Junior French Open. He ended his junior career after the 2011 US Open with a career-high ranking of No. 47 (attained on August 8, 2011) and a win-loss record of 76–48 in singles and 26–16 in doubles.[17]
Junior Grand Slam results - Singles:
Australian Open: A (-)
French Open: 1R (2011)
Wimbledon: 1R (2011)
US Open: 2R (2011)
Junior Grand Slam results - Doubles:
Australian Open: A (-)
French Open: QF (2011)
Wimbledon: 1R (2011)
US Open: 2R (2011)
2013–2020
Karatsev made his ATP Tour main-draw debut at the 2013 St. Petersburg Open where he received entry to the main draw due to a wildcard. In the first round, he lost to compatriot and second seed Mikhail Youzhny. In the doubles event, he partnered Dmitry Tursunov where they reached the semifinals, losing to Dominic Inglot and Denis Istomin in a narrow deciding tiebreaker. In 2015, he won his first main-draw match on the ATP Tour at the Kremlin Cup, defeating Youzhny.[18]
According to his father, Karatsev at 19 had been mentored by Dmitry Tursunov who traveled with him to Halle, Germany to train there for a couple of months but returned due to a lack of money to continue. Then, the German academy itself invited Aslan to return to Halle. He had been trained there for two years, then got injured and could not really play for two years because of the trauma. He moved to Barcelona where he played at the Bruguera Tennis Academy for less than two years.[19]
After searching for better coaching opportunities in Spain and Germany, Karatsev in 2019 hired his new coach, Yahor Yatsyk from Minsk. Yatsyk, a former professional tennis player one year his senior,[20] used to help Nikoloz Basilashvili as a coach.[21] During the COVID-19 lockdown Karatsev played exhibition matches in the United States.
2021: Australian Open semifinal, first singles titles, Olympic silver medal, top-20 in singles
Karatsev made his Grand Slam debut at the Australian Open, after coming through qualifying by beating Brandon Nakashima, Max Purcell and Alexandre Müller. It was here that he also notched his first top-10 victory, after upsetting 8th seed and world No. 9, Diego Schwartzman, in a rare match between two Jewish players. He also upset 20th seed Félix Auger-Aliassime after dropping the first two sets and coming back to win in five to become the first qualifier to reach a Grand Slam quarterfinal since Bernard Tomic at Wimbledon 2011, and the first man to reach a quarterfinal in his Grand Slam debut since Alex Rădulescu in 1996 Wimbledon.[22][23] He then defeated the former No. 3 player Grigor Dimitrov in four sets to reach the semifinals.[24]
By doing this, Karatsev became the first qualifier to reach the semifinals of a Grand Slam since Vladimir Voltchkov in 2000 Wimbledon and the first to do so at the Australian Open since Bob Giltinan in 1977, the lowest-ranked player to reach a Grand Slam semifinal since Goran Ivanišević in 2001 Wimbledon, and the first player to reach a Grand Slam semifinal on debut in the Open Era history.[2][25] There, he lost to world No. 1 and eventual champion, Novak Djokovic, in straight sets.[26][27] His run at the tournament raised his ranking from 114 to a career-high of world No. 42.
Karatsev's next tournament was Doha, where he beat Mubarak Shannan Zayid in straight sets in the first round, but lost to top seed Dominic Thiem in the second round after taking the first set in a tiebreak. He entered the doubles draw with compatriot Andrey Rublev and reached the semifinals, where they defeated Jérémy Chardy and Fabrice Martin. In the final, they defeated Marcus Daniell and Philipp Oswald in straight sets. Winning the tournament raised his doubles ranking from No. 447 to a career-high of No. 222. In Dubai, he beat Egor Gerasimov, Dan Evans and Lorenzo Sonego to reach his first ATP 500 quarterfinal, where he beat Jannik Sinner in three sets to advance to his first ATP 500 semifinal. In the semifinal, Karatsev ended the 23-match winning streak of second seed Andrey Rublev at ATP 500 events to reach his first singles final. In the final, he defeated Lloyd Harris to win his first title. The win allowed Karatsev to break into the top 30 for the first time in his career. He has become the second Russian tennis player to win his maiden title at 27, a record shared with Igor Kunitsyn.[28]
At the Serbia Open, Karatsev avenged his loss at the Australian Open by defeating world No. 1, Novak Djokovic, to advance to the final in the longest match of 2021 thus far.[29] He was then defeated by Matteo Berrettini in three sets.[30]
Karatsev notched two more top-ten wins, beating Schwartzman again in Madrid, and compatriot Daniil Medvedev in Rome.
At the Tokyo Olympics, he won the silver medal in mixed doubles with Elena Vesnina losing to compatriots Andrey Rublev and Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova in the final.[32] He also participated in the singles and doubles events where he reached the second and lost in the first round, respectively.
In his debut at a Masters-1000 level in doubles, Karatsev reached the quarterfinals at the National Bank Open in Toronto partnering with Dusan Lajovic. As a result, he entered the top 200 in doubles at world No. 172, on 16 August 2021. In singles seeded 15th and having a first round bye, he lost in the second round to Karen Khachanov.
At the 2021 BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells, he reached the fourth round at a Master 1000 for the first time in his career defeating 9th seed Denis Shapovalov[33] before he lost to 8th seed Hubert Hurkacz. In doubles he reached the final with compatriot Rublev where they lost to Polasek/Peers.[34] As a result he reached the top 100 in the doubles rankings at World No. 92 on 18 October 2021.
At the 2021 Kremlin Cup in Moscow, Karatsev defeated compatriot Karen Khachanov in the semifinals to reach his third final of the season and in his career.[35] He then defeated 6th seed Marin Čilić in the final 6–, 6–4 to win his 2nd career title.[36] With his successful run in Moscow, he made his debut in the top 20 in the rankings, rising to a ranking of World No. 19 on 25 October 2021.
In November 2021, the recently-ranked world no. 15 was named as the third alternate for the ATP Finals.[37]
Performance timelines
Key
W
F
SF
QF
#R
RR
Q#
P#
DNQ
A
Z#
PO
G
S
B
NMS
NTI
P
NH
(W) winner; (F) finalist; (SF) semifinalist; (QF) quarterfinalist; (#R) rounds 4, 3, 2, 1; (RR) round-robin stage; (Q#) qualification round; (P#) preliminary round; (DNQ) did not qualify; (A) absent; (Z#) Davis/Fed Cup Zonal Group (with number indication) or (PO) play-off; (G) gold, (S) silver or (B) bronze Olympic/Paralympic medal; (NMS) not a Masters tournament; (NTI) not a Tier I tournament; (P) postponed; (NH) not held; (SR) strike rate (events won / competed); (W–L) win–loss record.
To avoid confusion and double counting, these charts are updated at the conclusion of a tournament or when the player's participation has ended.
Karatsev's record against players who have been ranked in the top 10, with those who are active in boldface. Only ATP Tour main draw matches are considered:
^Salnikov, Daniil (1 May 2021). "«Долгое время играл через боль». Аслан Карацев рассказал о своём прорыве в элиту тенниса" ["I was playing through pain for a long time". Aslan Karatsev about his breakthrough into the tennis elite]. championat.com (in Russian). Retrieved 18 September 2021. Well, it was nice. I finished the year first [among the Russian juniors]. Why, though? In my opinion, I did not finish the year first. There were a lot of girls ahead, lots of girls. Somehow it happened, so it's me who was awarded. Yes, I was glad
_(19329427404).jpg)
Russia
(2020)
Desirae Krawczyk 
Joe Salisbury
Elena Vesnina
John Peers
Filip Polášek
Lloyd Harris
Matteo Berrettini
Marin Čilić
Marcus Daniell
Philipp Oswald
Chung Hyeon
Artem Smirnov
Karim Hossam
Farrukh Dustov
Martin Vaïsse
Tobias Kamke
Kimmer Coppejans
Gonçalo Oliveira
Aleksandre Bakshi
Attila Balázs
Stan Wawrinka
Tallon Griekspoor
Vladzimir Kruk
Adrian Ungur
Ariel Behar
Eduardo Dischinger
Tuna Altuna
Markus Eriksson
indicates the outcome of the Davis Cup match followed by the score, date, place of event, the zonal classification and its phase, and the court surface.
4–1; 15–17 July 2016; National Tennis Centre, Moscow, Russia; World Group Second round; Hard surface
Argentina
Japan
Novak Djokovic
Grigor Dimitrov
Stefanos Tsitsipas
Felix Auger-Aliassime
Hubert Hurkacz
Aslan Karatsev in 2011, prepares to receive the Russian Cup from Marat Safin[38][39]
Sports title "Merited Master of Sports of Russia" (6 August)[41]
Medal of the Order "For Merit to the Fatherland", 1st class (11 August)[42]
Medal "For the Glory of Ossetia" (10 September)[43]
.png){kind=small}
Kazakhstan; 2 = wheelchair; 3 = postponed to 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Russia.
