By Chris Oddo | Friday November 2, 2018
Karen Khachanov knocked off Alexander Zverev to set a semi-final clash with Dominic Thiem at the Paris Masters on Friday.
The Russian took advantage of a sub-par Zverev and showed no mercy over the course of his 6-1, 6-2 victory, which lasted 70 minutes and only featured drama when Zverev and Khachanov had a brief altercation at the net after the first set was concluded.
Zverev approached the Russian to make a complaint. Khachanov acknowledged and they played on, with the Zverev looking all the more listless due to an upper body injury that was hampering his serve.
"I told him my shoulder is hurting and that his uncle, or something, that he's going a bit crazy," Zverev told reporters after the match. "And I told him to tell him to keep it down a little bit because he was going a little bit too much over the edge. I mean, I was never going to win the match, so it was just I told him to calm down a little bit."
After the match Zverev told reporters that he knew he had no shot to win the match in warmups.
“I had pain the whole week,” he said. “And I did hours of treatment. And after yesterday's match, you know, I had a lot of pain in the evening and during the night as well. And then today during the warmup, you know, especially on my second serve where I was doing the kick motion, I mean, I had a lot of pain. And just kind of stretching, and it was tough.”
Zverev added: “But, I mean, I don't want to take anything away from him. He's playing great so credit to him as well.”
Khachanov has now reached two Masters 1000 semifinals in the second half of the season and he’s projected to rise to another career-high ranking after the week. He’ll come in at least at 13, and could climb as high as 11 if he wins the title.
His victory over Zverev was his third Top 10 win of the season and first ever over a Top 5 opponent.
Khachanov said that Zverev complained to him that members of his team were cheering too loud during the first set.
“I mean, nothing happened,” the Russian said of the incident. “Okay. When you are playing and you are losing sometimes, you just get a little bit frustrated and upset. And maybe some calls or some noise makes, you know, more problem and more frustration for you. So that's why. And then you cannot just think about the other people. So everything is fine between us and there is no problem. Just during the match sometimes it's tough to control the emotions.”
Khachanov will square off with Thiem, who battled from a set down to knock out defending champion Jack Sock, 4-6, 6-4, 6-4.
Thiem reaches his first Masters 1000 semifinal on a hard-court and moves to within one win of Zverev on the ATP’s 2018 win list with 53. He now owns a 22-7 win on hard-courts in 2018.
Sock started brilliantly, and the pair contested a well-played entertaining match, with Thiem seeming to have a bit more gas in the tank during the third set. Still, the Austrian had to wiggle out of trouble late in the third set when he saved a pair of break points to hold for 5-3.
Thiem improves to 3-1 lifetime against Sock, who will drop out of the Top 100 as a result of today’s loss.