Khachanov Moves Past Zverev Into Paris Semi-finals

Karen Khachanov extended the best season of his career on Friday when he booked a spot in his second ATP World Tour Masters 1000 semi-final at the Rolex Paris Masters.

The Russian, who advanced to the last four at the Rogers Cup in Toronto (l. to Nadal) in August, defeated fourth seed Zverev 6-1, 6-2 in 71 minutes to set up a meeting against American No. 16 seed Jack Sock, the defending champion, or sixth-seeded Austrian and Nitto ATP Finals contender Dominic Thiem. He trails Sock 0-1 in their FedEx ATP Head2Head series and have never faced Thiem.

Khachanov gained control after three consecutive service breaks at the start of the pair’s third FedEx ATP Head2Head meeting. At 1-4 down, Zverev received on-court treatment for a right shoulder complaint. Khachanov wrapped up the 34-minute opener when Zverev struck a forehand long of the baseline — his 13th unforced error — in the seventh game.

Zverev held serve for the first time in the second game of the second set and continued to fight, but once the German missed a forehand volley at 2-3, Ad-out, Khachanov swept through to his 44th match win of the season (44-22 overall).

The 22-year-old Khachanov has won two ATP World Tour 250-level titles this year at the Open 13 Provence (d. Pouille) in February and at last month’s VTB Kremlin Cup (d. Mannarino). He is now 5-16 lifetime against opponent in the Top 10 of the ATP Rankings.

Zverev, who has recorded the most wins on the ATP World Tour (54) this year — one shy of his career-high of 55 in 2017 — will now look to prepare to play for the second consecutive year at the season finale, to be held at The O2 in London from 11-18 November.

from Tennis - ATP World Tour https://ift.tt/2Di0Lk8