Khachanov finally halts Djokovic’s victory streak
PARIS: Karen Khachanov caused one of the shocks of the tennis year by overpowering Novak Djokovic 75, 64 in the Paris Masters final yesterday to end the Serbian’s remarkable spell of dominance in the men’s game.
The 22yearold Russian has for some time been seen as one of the rising young talents of the sport, but few could have envisaged his demolition of the Serbian superstar, who was on a threemonth, 22match winning streak.
Djokovic was expected to celebrate his return to world No 1 today with a recordextending fifth
Paris title, but he went down in one hour 37 minutes amid a hail of 31 crushing winners from the Muscovite’s racket.
‘‘To finish my season like this is a dream,’’ Khachanov told the crowd in the Bercy arena, explaining how Djokovic had always been an inspiration to him.
He even took a leaf out of the Serb’s book of celebrations by bending down to kiss the Centre Court.
Khachanov, a strapping 1.98m huge hitter with surprisingly fleet movement around the court, took advantage of Djokovic being a little under the weather after a week struggling with flulike symptoms.
Yet, even though the Serb admitted he was not feeling his best after his epic threehour win over Roger Federer in Sunday’s semifinal, he had nothing but praise for the out standing quality of Khachanov’s attacking game.
‘‘All credit to Karen, he did a great job today. He deserves the trophy,’’ Djokovic told the crowd.
Earning his fourth straight win over a top10 player this week, Khachanov picked up the biggest title of his burgeoning career.
It was his third triumph of the year, all on indoor hard courts, and will rocket Khachanov from 18th in the world to a careerhigh 11th today.
Khachanov looks to have the equipment to offer the established order of Djokovic, Federer and Rafa Nadal a real threat.
‘‘I’m sure we’ll see a lot of great games from him in the future,’’ Djokovic conceded.
What was most impressive about Khachanov’s victory was the manner in which he bullied Djokovic around the court with the depth and booming accuracy of his ground strokes and his confidence in his ventures to the net.
The only previous time they had met, Djokovic crushed the Russian in straight sets at Wimbledon and, momentarily, it seemed as if the same fate could await Khachanov again as he was outrallied to go 31 down in the opening set.
Instead he immediately broke back against the great champion, who was looking for a fourth consecutive tournament win.
Khachanov redoubled his attacking intent, while not giving up another break point in the rest of the match with his efficient, heavy serving.
Constantly keeping the master of defence on the back foot, he converted a decisive break point at 55 with an irretrievable backhand at full stretch before taking the set in 57 minutes.
Then, with Djokovic clearly breathing harder, he earned the decisive break to go 21 up in the second set after Djokovic had pushed a wearylooking backhand into the net. — Reuters