The famous former Russian tennis player Andrei Olkhovsky believes that Karen Khachanov played in the Australian Open semi-finals with the Greek Stefanos Tsitsipas softer than before.

Khachanov lost to Tsitsipas in four games – 6:7 (2:7), 4:6, 7:6 (9:7), 3:6. It was his first semi-final at the Australian Open and his second at a Grand Slam.

– As I said, first of all, it is necessary to note the good performance of Karen Khachanov at the Australian Open. As for the match: I probably lacked a little more freedom in the game, rigidity, length. To impose on Tsitsipas a game with fairly hard shots from the back line without going to the net. In my opinion, Karen played a little softer than in the previous match, which allowed Tsitsipas to come forward quite often and attack.

This is the Australian semi-final. These are stands, pressure, this is desire. Knowing that you can go further. I think Karen now understands that he can pass the top ten in the game. So I think it all worked together. Somewhere it didn’t work out, some exits to the grid hesitantly played – a little bit of everything. There is no one single factor due to which Khachanov lost. All together is important. If we take the ending of the third set, then Khachanov played great in the tie-break. If you show such tennis all the time, of course, you will be one of the strongest tennis players in the world,” Olkhovsky told Gazeta.Ru.

• The FTR said that Khachanov played very worthily in the semi-finals of the Australian Open with Tsitsipas
• Khachanov jumped over his head at the Australian Open, says Kafelnikov