Karen Khachanov

Karen Abgarovich Khachanov (Russian: Каре́н Абга́рович Хача́нов; born 21 May 1996) is a Russian tennis player of Armenian descent. He has won four ATP singles titles. Khachanov achieved his career-high singles ranking of world No. 8 on 15 July 2019, after reaching the quarterfinals of the 2019 French Open.

For a time, Khachanov was coached by Igor Bitsenko in Moscow and Vedran Martić in Split, Croatia. In 2014 he joined 4Slam Tennis Academy led by Galo Blanco. Khachanov parted ways with Blanco in November 2017. Now he trains with his previous coach Vedran Martić.

Early life

Khachanov started playing tennis at the age of three in kindergarten when his parents put him into the tennis group. His father Abgar, an Armenian, played volleyball at a very high level before studying medicine, while his mother, Natalia, a Russian, also studied medicine. He has a sister, Margarita, and a brother, Georgiy. His idols growing up were Marat Safin and Juan Martín del Potro and favourite sports teams are Real Madrid and the Miami Heat. He decided to become a professional player at 12.

After Khachanov turned 15, he moved to Split, Croatia, where he trained under Vedran Martić, Goran Ivanišević's former coach. Later, he moved to Barcelona and was coached by Galo Blanco.

2013: Davis Cup debut

Khachanov won the Under-18 European Championship title in July 2013 in Switzerland. At age 17 and 157 days, he became the youngest Russian tennis player in the pro series, surpassing Mikhail Youzhny. Khachanov upset former world No. 8 Janko Tipsarević as a junior at the 2013 Kremlin Cup in Russia. In October, Khachanov defeated Dean O'Brien of South Africa to help Russia advance in the 2013 Davis Cup Europe/Africa Zone Group I.

2014: First Futures titles

Khachanov lost to Jerzy Janowicz of Poland in the first round of the 2014 Davis Cup Europe/Africa Zone Group I. Khachanov received a wild card entry to the 2014 Sony Open, but lost in the first round to Daniel Gimeno-Traver. Together with Andrey Rublev he won a silver medal in doubles at the 2014 Summer Youth Olympics. They lost to Brazilian players Orlando Luz and Marcelo Zormann in the final. He won his first two Futures titles at Kaohsiung and Mulhouse.

2015: First Challenger

In September 2015, Khachanov won his first ATP Challenger Tour title in Istanbul, where he was unseeded. In the final, he defeated top seed Sergiy Stakhovsky.

2016: First ATP title

In 2016, he qualified for the Barcelona Open beating Ramkumar Ramanathan and Marco Trungelliti. He then played his first round match beating Aljaz Bedene from being a set down. Then he proceeded to the second round beating fifth seed Roberto Bautista Agut also in three sets. He eventually lost in the third round to the eleventh seed Alexandr Dolgopolov. He got a wildcard for the Istanbul Open. In his first match, he beat Aljaz Bedene for the second time in the month. In his second match, he lost to Albert Ramos Vinolas despite winning the first set.

By entering an ATP singles final at the 2016 Chengdu Open, Khachanov became the first Russian since Mikhail Youzhny, who beat David Ferrer in the final at the 2013 Valencia Open 500, to do so. Khachanov won his first ATP tournament there, beating Albert Ramos-Vinolas in three sets.

2017: First top 10 win, Grand Slam 4th round

Karen reached the second round of the 2017 Australian Open, his best AO result to date. He lost to 20th-ranked Jack Sock. Then he lost five first rounds in a row, interrupting that streak in Indian Wells. In the clay court season Karen showed better results. He went on reaching the quarterfinals of the Barcelona Open and the Lyon Open. At the French Open he got into the 4th Round. On the way he beat 14th-ranked Tomáš Berdych and 22nd-ranked John Isner, but lost to number-one Andy Murray. Karen then got into the semifinals of the Halle Open, ensuring him a seed place in a Grand Slam for the first time. On that tournament he also won his very first grass match on professional level. In the 2017 Wimbledon Championships he was the 30th seed and he reached the 3rd round before losing to 10 time French Open champion Rafael Nadal in straight sets.

2018: First Masters 1000 title

Khachanov entered 2018 Australian Open where he lost in second round to Juan Martin Del Potro matching his previous best result at the tournament. In February, he won his second ATP title at Open 13 in Marseille, France. He defeated Frenchman Lucas Pouille in the finals.

In the North American summer hard-court swing, Khachanov reached the semifinals of a Masters 1000 tournament for the first time in his career, at the Canadian Open, losing to Nadal. He once again met Nadal at the US Open, in the 3rd Round, losing in a marathon match. He then helped Team Russia to progress through the 1st Round play-off of the Europe/Africa Zone Group I by winning both matches and securing Russia a place in the World Group. In Asia, Khachanov struggled to find form. He rebounded at the Kremlin Cup, winning his second ATP title of the season.

Khachanov claimed his first ATP Masters 1000 title at the Rolex Paris Masters by defeating Filip Krajinović, Matthew Ebden, world No. 9 John Isner (saving two match points), world No. 5 Alexander Zverev, world No. 8 Dominic Thiem and world No. 1 Novak Djokovic. He was the first tennis player representing Russia to win a Masters 1000 final since Nikolay Davydenko, who won the inaugural 2009 Shanghai Masters. No. 18 Khachanov was the lowest-ranked player to claim a Masters 1000 title since Ivan Ljubicic won 2010 Indian Wells Masters. As a result, Khachanov climbed to world No. 11 and was an alternate at the 2018 ATP Finals. Khachanov became the fifth Russian tennis player to reach a Masters tournament, after Marat Safin, Andrey Chesnokov, Yevgeny Kafelnikov and Nikolay Davydenko.

2019: Major quarterfinal, top 10, poor year-end season

Despite starting the season as the 11th ranked player in the world, Khachanov struggled to achieve any notable results for the first five months of the season. Leading up to the French Open, Khachanov's record for the year was ten wins and twelve losses and he had failed to reach a single tournament semifinal.

At the French Open, Khachanov won his first three rounds to set up a last-16 encounter with his idol Juan Martín del Potro. Khachanov beat del Potro for the first time to reach his first major quarterfinal, where he lost to Dominic Thiem. Khachanov's maiden Slam quarterfinal saw him enter the top-10 for the first time as world No. 9.

In August, Khachanov reached his first tournament semifinal of the year after beating Alexander Zverev in the quarterfinals of the Montreal Masters. In the semifinals, he was defeated by compatriot Daniil Medvedev.

After the Rogers Cup, Khachanov notably reached the semifinals of the China Open. He failed to defend his title at the Paris Masters, losing in the second round to Jan-Lennard Struff, and dropped out of the top 10.

2020

Khachanov entered the Auckland Open as third-seeded, losing the first match against John Millman. He then joined team Russia, also consisting of Medvedev, Gabashvili and Kravchuk, at the ATP Cup. He beat four out of five players, with his team progressing to the semifinals.

Khachanov is an aggressive baseliner, known for his hard-hitting groundstrokes and serve. He generally aims to be offensive, setting up winners with his serve, or using his forehand to dictate rallies. He uses Wilson H22 racquets with 18X20 string pattern that is not available to general public. His racquets are painted as Wilson Blade 98.

Khachanov's signature shot is his forehand, which he hits with great speed and spin and he uses to move opponents around and produce winners. He is known to run around his backhand to inside-out and inside-in forehands as well, due to his weaker backhand wing. Khachanov uses intelligent point construction to either hit outright winners or wear opponents down with consistent offense. Additionally, his strong serve and one-two combination with his serve and forehand allow him to hold serve easily, and concentrate on breaking opponents.

Khachanov's weaknesses include his lack of variety, and to a lesser extent his defense at the baseline. His defensive game is significantly weaker than his aggressive game, and he often struggles when put under pressure quickly during rallies. Additionally, his net game and variety of shot, such as his slice, have been cited as rooms for improvement to become a more all-round player.

Khachanov uses Wilson H22 racquets with a 18X20 string pattern that is not available to the general public. His racquets are painted as Wilson Blade 98. He also endorses Nike apparel and shoes.

In April 2016, he married Veronika Shkliaeva. They welcomed their first child, a boy, on 14 September 2019.

Grand Slam tournament performance timeline

Current through the 2020 Australian Open.

Masters tournaments

Singles: 1 (1 title)

Doubles: 2 (2 runners-up)

2014

• The Russian Cup in the category Junior of the Year

2018

• Player of the Year

2019

• Team of the Year