Heading into the first grand slam of the 2021 tennis season, I can absolutely guarantee not many people would have heard of 27-year-old Russian qualifier Aslan Karatsev of Moscow, who entered the Australian Open ranked 114th in the world. Well, after Friday’s stunning performance, many more people have.
Karatsev is now off to the fourth round, after a shocking straight-sets win over the eighth seed, Diego Schwartzman of Argentina. Karatsev came through in a big way, as he defeated the 5’7″ clay-court specialist 6-3, 6-3, 6-3.
A major reason for Karatsev’s success was his serve. He had nine aces, compared to Schwartzman’s zero.
Karatsev also made the most of his break-point opportunities. He only had six break point chances, but capitalized on five of them. Schwartzman had 11 breakpoint chances but only broke Karatsev’s serve only once.
Of the 24 players left in the draw, four are Russian. The fact that the tournament still has the fourth-ranked and ATP World Tour Finals champion Daniil Medvedev, the seventh-ranked Andrey Rublev, and the 19th-ranked Karen Khachanov, should be of zero surprise. No one expected them to be joined by Karatsev, who had to go through qualification, and had never won a grand slam match before his three wins this week in Melbourne.
A gold medalist in men’s doubles from the 2017 Summer Universiade, Karatsev is one of two players left in the men’s draw who are ranked outside the top 100. The other is American Mackenzie McDonald, who is ranked 192nd in the world. Karatsev’s next opponent in the fourth round is Canada’s Felix Auger-Aliassime. McDonald meanwhile will play Lloyd Harris of South Africa in the third round.
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