The next test for Karatsev is another player he has never faced before, Frenchman Adrian Mannarino. Although breaks were exchanged early in the fourth, Karatsev crunched a forehand for another break at 4-2 that was ultimately enough to see him through. The Russian established early leads in the second and third sets and never looked back. A key factor in this success has been his ability to hit clean winners, and he led comfortably in this category once again against McDonald, hitting 43 compared to his opponent’s 19.Īfter his bright start the American struggled on serve, with Karatsev breaking seven times on his way to victory. Karatsev has made sustained progress since that run in Melbourne, culminating last week with his third tour-level title in Sydney. to Djokovic), while McDonald made the fourth round of a Grand Slam for the first time before losing to Daniil Medvedev. It was the first meeting between two players who both made a name for themselves in Melbourne a year ago: Karatsev stunned Diego Schwartzman, Felix Auger-Aliassime and Grigor Dimitrov on his way to the semi-finals (l. 55 McDonald saw out the first set but whatever had bothered the Russian early on seemed to fade away as his powerful baseline game came to the fore and he eased to victory in two hours and 33 minutes on Kia Arena. All the time spent on court appeared to be catching up with him early against McDonald, as he went 3-0 down early in the first set and immediately called for the physio. There were just 48 hours between the Russian’s victory over Andy Murray in the Sydney Tennis Classic final and his four-hour, 52 minute first-round epic in Melbourne with Jaume Munar on Monday. The 18th seed had treatment on his leg after three games but was able to summon enough energy to battle past American Mackenzie McDonald 3-6, 6-2, 6-2, 6-3 Wednesday night in the second round of the Australian Open. More success means more matches, and that doesn’t always make things easy. 132 (achieved in November) with his run to this ATP 250 final. He will eclipse his previous career-high of No. Including qualifying, Tabilo has beaten five Argentines this week. The match ended on another uncharacteristic Schwartzman error, as he hit long on a second-serve return.Īfter knocking out Baez and Schwartzman, Tabilo could face another home favourite in the title match, with Juan Ignacio Londero set to face sixth seed Albert Ramos-Vinolas of Spain in the second semi-final. The tie-break went entirely on serve until a Schwartzman backhand found the net at 6-all. The Argentine measured an on-the-run, cross-court backhand at 15-all and tracked down two drop shots to get back on serve, and the set quickly headed to a tie-break. With Tabilo on the cusp of the biggest win of his career, Schwartzman stepped up to stop his opponent from serving out the match at 5-4.
Schwartzman won the first two games of set two, but then fell victim to another four-game Tabilo run as the Chilean reestablished control on center court behind his heavy ground game. Hopefully this is the start of something good, and hopefully I can keep this level.”Īfter racing out to a 4-0 lead in the opening set, Tabilo used strong serving to save three break points in serving out the set at 5-3. “I think I just needed one of these weeks to kind of click and get going. “I’ve been playing my best tennis for a few months now and I finished the year strong,” said Tabilo, who won his first ATP Challenger Tour title in Ecuador in November and beat Sebastian Baez in the Cordoba quarter-finals. 14 throughout the nearly two-hour match, penetrating the red clay with a powerful lefty forehand and keeping his opponent off balance with several well-timed drop shots. 144 has now won 12 consecutive sets at the Cordoba Open, including a pair of straight-set qualifying wins. Chilean qualifier Alejandro Tabilo battled past top seed Diego Schwartzman and a partisan crowd in Cordoba on Saturday to reach his first ATP Tour final with a 6-3, 7-6(6) upset.
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