Karen Khachanov reached the semi-finals of the Grand Slam tournament for the first time in his career. The path to the top four lay through a crazy confrontation with Australian tennis player Nick Kirios.

Our athlete survived the five-set marathon, now the coveted trophy is just a stone’s throw away.

Russian tennis player Karen Khachanov at the US Open beat Australian Nick Kyrios in five games 7:5, 4:6, 7:5, 6:7 (3:7), 6:4 and managed to reach the semi-finals of the Grand Slam tournament for the first time in his career . The next opponent of our athlete will be the Norwegian Kasper Ruud, who has the fifth seed.

– I did it. I did it! Thank you. Now you love me, I appreciate it. It was a crazy match. That’s what I expected, I was ready to run, wrestle, play five sets. We played for almost four hours. And it seems to me that there is no other way to defeat Nick. I am very proud of myself. I was collected from the very beginning to the end and was able to win, – said Karen after the victory.

The hardest match lasted for 3 hours and 41 minutes. In the first set, none of the opponents could take advantage for a long time – both were good at their serves. In the end, the Russian nevertheless showed character, having written down the game at his own expense. The second set was left for Kirios, who this time achieved a minimal lead at the beginning of the game, and then managed to keep the advantage.

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To some extent, the third set was a turning point. The Australian missed two break points at the start, failed the ending. During the break, he could only take out his anger on the bottle, which the athlete in his hearts threw on the court. Having received a warning, Kirios returned to the fight again and in a long fourth set won the tie-break, but the final game was left to the tennis player from Russia. Nick went to break rackets, damaged two pieces on emotions. Karen, in turn, proceeded to the semi-finals – nerves of steel and iron will allowed him to achieve such an important victory.

Karen already has a victory at the Masters. At the Wimbledon tournament and Roland Garros, Khachanov did not go beyond the quarterfinals. At the Australian Open, our tennis player has never made it past the third round. In the USA, they finally managed to enter the quartet of the strongest. And I want to believe that this is not the limit for Karen.

The audience reciprocated

Khachanov managed to avenge last year’s US Open winner Daniil Medvedev, who failed Kirios in the fourth round. And this was done, ignoring the pressure of the stands, because the fans supported the Australian for most of the meeting.

– In this match, all the spectators supported Khachanov. But he withstood the whole match and did not give any reason for aggression. Karen spent it calmly and very confidently from a psychological point of view, – Shamil Tarpishchev, president of the Tennis Federation, told Match TV.

When the outcome of the meeting was a foregone conclusion, the audience nevertheless changed their anger to mercy – while the opponent was destroying rackets, Karen warmly welcomed the audience, the stands reciprocated. It is worth saying that Kirios, who emotionally accepted the defeat, did not hold any grudge against his opponent.

– I’m devastated. But Karen deserved to win. He is a fighter, a warrior. I think he served very well today. To be honest, he’s probably the best pitcher I’ve played with in this tournament. He was good in decisive moments. I failed, – the ATP press service quotes the Australian.

Together with Khachanov, another Russian Andrei Rublev continues to fight for the victory in the men’s singles. Olympic champion Tokyo in the mixed doubles has yet to reach the top four – in the quarterfinals, the 24-year-old athletes will play against US representative Francis Tiafoe.