He's the surprise guest from the last square.
And already the great sensation of the Australian Open which opened the new tennis season.
The Russian Aslan Karatsev, 114th in the world and resulting from the qualifications, qualified for the semi-finals of the Grand Slam on Tuesday at the expense of the Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrov (21st), diminished by a back injury (2-6, 6 -4, 6-1, 6-2).
He defies the stats and wipes out McEnroe
Of the three Russian players present in the quarter-finals (Rublev faces Medvedev on Wednesday), Aslan Karatsev is obviously the least known.
If his compatriots are part of the world top 10, he was only 114th before the Australian meeting.
But we are likely to remember his name.
Because "AK" is erasing many traces of tennis history books.
He thus becomes the first player in the Open era (since 1968) to reach the last four in his first Grand Slam.
He is also the lowest ranked player to invite himself to the semifinals in Melbourne for thirty years and Patrick McEnroe (then No. 114), in 1991. He is only the fifth player from qualifying to invite himself in the last four of a Grand Slam, the first was a certain John McEnroe at the Wimbledon tournament in 1977. The Russian will challenge the world n ° 1 Novak Djokovic, striker of the German Alexander Zverev (7th) in four sets ( 6-7, 6-2, 6-4, 7-6), for a place in the final.
1. But how far will @AsKaratsev go?
The Russian is the very first player of the Open era to reach the semi-finals of a Grand Slam tournament from his very first participation!
#AusOpen pic.twitter.com/3Uw0NyJPFK
- Game, Set and Math (@JeuSetMaths) February 16, 2021
An old rider from the lower divisions
If most tennis fans had never heard of Aslan Karatsev, the Russian is not a young first on the circuit.
Born September 4, 1993, in Vladikavkaz, at the foot of the Caucasus Mountains, on the border with Georgia and halfway between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea, the right-hander has been surfing the courts for nine years.
But at 27, the one who has been coached by Belarusian Yahor Yatsyk for a few months seems to finally reach the fullness of his tennis for a year.
During the interruption of the season due to the health crisis in spring 2020, he was ranked 253rd in the world.
During this break, he won 17 exhibition matches out of 23 contested.
On resuming the circuit, he kept the pace and played a final in Prague (lost to Wawrinka) and followed up with two victories on the Challenger circuit (again Prague then Ostrava).
He finished the year with 18 wins out of 20 matches played in the Challengers, 16 of which did not lose a set.
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His start to 2021 - despite a total quarantine in his hotel room imposed for two weeks upon his arrival in Australia - is perfect with the victory in the ATP Cup with the Russian team (with his friends Rublev and Medvedev) and a clear round at the Australian Open.
Thanks to this qualification, he is sure to make his entry into the top 50, in 42nd place in the world in the next ranking.
A victory in the Rod Laver Arena this Sunday would even propel him to 14th place in the world.
A devastating forehand
With his lumberjack physique (1.85 m for 85 kg), Karatsev does not cut corners on the tennis courts.
More at ease on fast and hard surfaces - as in Australia - than on clay, the Russian with the devastating forehand and two-handed backhand is adept at powerful strikes and shortened rallies.
“It was very easy, remembers, in an interview with the Team, Thomas Setodji, 25, a former French player who faced him on the secondary circuit.
You could see immediately that he was a player who didn't think too much;
he sends as soon as he can.
It was the same game he produced in Melbourne, except he made a lot less mistakes.
"
He continues in the sports daily: "There is all the time the transfer of body weight, the hand which accelerates each time, and this impression that he does not care about the score, that he is going to send the same. way at any time.
I don't think he can do a lot of rallies, I don't feel he is very physical and, moreover, the fact that he won in five sets against Auger-Aliassime, it surprised me.
But I saw the stat against Schwartzman earlier in the tournament: out of 90 points he had 50 winners, so that also means there isn't a lot of rallies when he's playing.
"
A shy little talker
Shy, silent during press conferences and "introverted" according to Gilles Cervara, the French coach of Medvedev who knows him well, Karatsev is no more talkative on social networks.
If most of his companions on the circuit display their lives on Instagram or Twitter, he remains discreet.
Difficult to know more about his character and his personality.
He is followed by 15,100 fans on Instagram and 1,800 on Twitter.
Figures that should increase rapidly.
According to the photos, one can think that he enjoys nature, travel and dogs.
A bank account that will double
Since the start of his career on the professional circuit in 2013 - in singles and doubles - Aslan Karatsev had accumulated the sum of 618,354 dollars (approximately 508,500 euros) in prize money. In just over a week, thanks to his journey in Melbourne, his bank account will double. Despite the health crisis and the reduction in premiums imposed by the organizers, Karatsev is already guaranteed to leave Australia with a check for 850,000 Australian dollars, or 545,000 euros. A sum that could further inflate with a qualification in the final (961,000 euros) or if successful this Sunday (1.76 million euros).
