On Thursday, September 19, five matches were played at the ATP and WTA tournaments in Asia with the participation of Russian tennis players. Three of them were held in Chengdu. Competitions have been held in this Chinese city since 2016, although Chengdu was not included in the calendar from 2020 to 2022 due to the pandemic and its consequences. The first winner of the tournament was Karen Khachanov; for the Russian, this title was the first in his career at ATP level. And in last year’s final, Alexander Zverev won a convincing victory over Roman Safiullin.
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This time Khachanov is not in the draw: Karen will play in Hangzhou. The first two seeds went to Italian Lorenzo Musetti and Italian Alexander Bublik. They, like the third and fourth seeds, received a bye in the first round. But Russians Roman Safiullin (8), Pavel Kotov and Alibek Kachmazov (Q) were forced to start the fight from the 1/16 finals.
The 22-year-old Kachmazov, who is ranked in the top 300 in the world rankings, rarely plays in ATP tournaments. Before Chengdu, he had not appeared in the main draws at the professional level in 2024 and managed only one victory in five matches. His opponent today is American tennis player Alexander Kovacevic, the world’s number 72 player.
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“His position, like playing tennis, is not the right one.” The Russian travelled around Europe, but returned.
Kachmazov started the match with a break and did not allow his opponent to reach any break points until the last game of the first set. Serving for the match at 5:4, the Russian started with 0:40, but then won five points in a row, and with them the set 6:4 in 46 minutes.
In the second game, Alibek also immediately led with a break, then had more chances to take his opponent’s serve, but missed all five break points. And in the sixth game, Kovacevic responded with his own break (3-3). After that, the tennis players, without any break points, reached the tie-break, where Kachmazov came back from two set points and finally took advantage of the first match point – 6:4, 7:6 (9:7) in two hours. Having won the second match of his career at the ATP level, Alibek fell to his knees and screamed with joy.
In the second round, Kachmazov will face the world number 90 from Japan, Taro Daniel, who eliminated Italian Lorenzo Sonego (6) by 6:4, 7:5.
Pavel Kotov, ranked 61st in the ATP rankings, took to the court alongside Australian Christopher O’Connell, world number 75. Last year, Kotov beat O’Connell in a tough match in the quarter-finals in Marrakech 6:3, 6:7 (6:8), 7:6 (7:3). This time Christopher took revenge on Pavel.
In the first set, Kotov played unsuccessfully on the reception. He did not have a single break point; moreover, in the last three matches abroad he was unable to score a single point. And the Russian sometimes had difficulties with his serve. In the first game he managed to escape a break point, but in the fifth his opponent made a break that in the end was enough to win the game 6:4 in 39 minutes.
In the second set, Pavel also never faced break points, although he only lost one game to love. O’Connell also had many opportunities to take someone else’s serve – only two before the score was 5:5 inclusive. And in the eleventh game, Christopher broke with 30:0 on his opponent’s serve, after which he served for the match – 6:4, 7:5 in 1 hour 39 minutes.
Safiullin, ranked 56th in the world rankings, played with Italian veteran Fabio Fognini; the 37-year-old tennis player is ranked 79th in the rankings. In the first game, Safiullin was more active than the older Italian, he made more mistakes, but also had more winners. Halfway through the set, the tennis players exchanged missed break points, and in the eighth game Fognini made two double faults, which helped the Russian get a break. In the ninth game, Roman scored the match with a clean sheet – 6:3 in 37 minutes.
In the second set, it looked like Safiullin had to put the pressure on Fognini. Everything was heading in that direction, as the Russian was the first to break away. However, the Italian managed to break back, and in the tenth game Roman became nervous on his serve, made a series of errors and, to top it off, a double on set point. And Fabio took the match to the third set 6:4 in 43 minutes.
Safiullin also started the decisive match badly (0:2). After that, Roman finally managed to turn the tide of the game. The Russian managed to turn the break around and after the seventh game he himself was ahead 4:3 with the break. In the ninth game he did not use the match point on reception, then, serving for the match, he was awarded 0:30, but did not concede any more points: 6:3, 4:6, 6:4. 2 hours 9 minutes.
In the second round, Safiullin will face 19-year-old Chinese Shang Juncheng. In the first round, he defeated the famous Kei Nishikori, former world number four, 6:4, 6:4.
At the new tournament in Hangzhou (China), which appeared on the calendar this year, Aslan Karatsev played his first round match against Italian Mattia Bellucci; both tennis players are currently not in the top 100. In addition to Karatsev, Karen Khachanov, who received the second place, is also in the group, and Holger Rune is the first-placed player.
It is worth remembering that from 2023, these Chinese tournaments (a year ago, instead of Hangzhou, it was Zhuhai) start on Wednesday and the finals are played on Tuesday. This is due to the expansion of the field of the Shanghai Masters from 56 to 96 participants: this tournament now lasts not one week, as before 2023, but almost two.
In the first set, Bellucci took the lead with a break in the third game. The Italian held his serve for some time, but in the sixth game Karatsev faced break points for the first time and used the second opportunity to seize his opponent’s serve for 3:3. However, Mattia immediately took a second break, after which he calmly maintained the lead – 6:4 in 48 minutes.
And Karatsev failed in the second set. During the entire match, which lasted only 22 minutes, he scored only five points, of which only one was on the reception. And Bellucci won with the shuttlecock: 6:4, 6:0 in 1 hour and 10 minutes.
The second round matches have ended at the WTA-500 tournament in Seoul. The first Russian racket player, Daria Kasatkina, who topped the rankings, played with the American Haley Baptiste. Kasatkina, who held her first meeting after the US Open, is ranked 13th in the WTA rankings, and Baptiste is at the beginning of the second hundred. Read about yesterday’s matches with the participation of Russian tennis players in a separate article.
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In the first set, Baptiste was not on serve except for one game. At the beginning of the match, the opponents exchanged breaks, after which Kasatkina broke someone else’s serve. In the seventh game, the Russian made a second break, and the American helped her a lot, committing four double faults. Daria was unable to serve for the match at 5:2, losing the game at 30:0, after which Hayley served to love. However, Kasatkina did not miss the second opportunity to close the set 6:4 in 41 minutes.
At the start of the second game, Baptiste was able to force a fight with Kasatkina, but all the key moves were in the hands of the Russian. In the first three games, Daria earned two breaks and also earned one break point on her serve. In the fourth game, the American broke, but Kasatkina did not allow her to try for a comeback. In the seventh game, Daria made the third break of the game and served for the match at 5:2: 6:4, 6:2 in 1 hour and 17 minutes.
Kasatkina will face 2021 US Open champion Emma Raducanu in the quarter-finals. The Briton defeated Chinese Yuan Yue (8) 6:4, 6:3.
