Khachanov stuns Zverev in Toronto fightback
Karen Khachanov saved a match point in a nervy and error-strewn 6-3, 4-6, 7-6(4) victory over top seed Alexander Zverev in Toronto to reach the final of the National Bank Open Presented by Rogers.
The former World No. 8 won five straight points from 1/3 in the third-set tie-break to set up his third win in 24 career meetings against a Top 3 player, the first of which came against Novak Djokovic in the 2018 Rolex Paris Masters title match when he was just 22. That was the last time Khachanov appeared in a Masters 1000 final.
Playing his first tournament since falling to Taylor Fritz in the Wimbledon quarter-finals, Khachanov will play the winner of Fritz and fellow American Ben Shelton in the final.
“I had to dig deep and lift my level. It was a very demanding, very mental, very physical match. So I’m very happy to get the win after losing some easy ones to him in recent years,” said Khachanov, referring to three consecutive losses to Zverev in which he won a total of 14 games.
“Today was a real close one. I was match point down, if the ball touches the net and drops over we wouldn’t be talking now.”
Khachanov and Zverev both littered the stats sheet in the two hour, 53 minute battle, with a combined 78 unforced errors, according to Infosys ATP Stats. A Canada semi-finalist twice before in 2018 and ’19, Khachanov made 17 unforced forehand errors while Zverev made 22 on his normally rock-solid backhand. The German also threw in seven double faults, after also serving up seven against Alexei Popyrin in the quarter-finals.
Zverev’s most costly error came on his lone match point. Serving to force a tie-break, Khachanov offered up a juicy second serve on the ad court into the wheelhouse of Zverev’s backhand, but the 2017 Toronto champion dumped it into the top of the net.
“I thought I was very brave in the tie-break, I just missed,” Zverev said. “That's one thing that I wanted to change, it's one thing I wanted to work on… I missed some balls that I wish I wouldn't have missed, but that's the way it is.
"Generally I wasn't feeling the ball well, so it's normal that you miss a little bit more than usual in these kind of situations. But that's okay, I mean, we move on. I have another chance in a few days time in Cincinnati.”
Khachanov, who went 5-7 on hard court through the first three months of the season, has surged 10 places this week to 12th in the ATP Live Race to Turin as he pushes his claim to qualify for the eight-man ATP Finals in Turin from 9-16 November.
