18th seed Karen Khachanov of Russia beat 29th seed Sebastian Korda of the United States 7-6 6-3 3-0 in an Australian Open quarterfinal match in Melbourne on Tuesday. The 26-year-old Russian thus made it to back-to-back semifinals in Grand Slams, as he also qualified for the last four of the 2022 US Open.
On the other hand, it was disappointing performance from Korda before he had to withdraw following an injury to his right wrist. We will now take a look at how the match progressed:
How Karen Khachanov beat Korda at the Australian Open
Khachanov played the angles well to put Korda under pressure:
Khachanov played the angles very well right from the beginning, especially with his crosscourt forehand. As a result, Korda often had to stretch to his right to retrieve the ball and then the Russian could finish the point by coming to the net.
The Russian also served with sharp angles to the deuce court to make it difficult for Korda to play good returns. Khachanov broke the American in the second game of the first set before going 5-2 up, but Korda broke back in the ninth game to reduce the deficit to 4-5.
The American then held his serve to take the set into a tie-break, but Khachanov then raced to a 6-3 lead in it. Korda saved a couple of set points, but Khachanov then hit a down-the-line backhand winner to draw first blood.
An erratic Korda suffers an injury to make it easy for Khachanov:
Korda tried to take the attack to the Russian by playing approach shots and then rushing to the point. However, he kept committing errors despite having put the Russian into an uncomfortable position.
Korda hit a few of his overhead smashes wide and also hit the net often with his backhand. To aggravate things for him, he suffered an injury to his right wrist and had to receive treatment midway through the set.
After play resumed, Khachanov won seven straight games, breaking the American thrice in the process. Korda then had to withdraw to hand Khachanov the victory.
Korda could win only 61% of the points on his first serve, while the Russian managed 80%. Korda also committed 39 unforced errors in the match against Khachanov’s much lower 18.
Main Photo from Getty.
