{"id":85794,"date":"2023-05-02T14:11:58","date_gmt":"2023-05-02T12:11:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mutuamadridopen.com\/?p=85794"},"modified":"2023-05-02T14:11:58","modified_gmt":"2023-05-02T12:11:58","slug":"khachanov-reaches-first-1000-quarter-final-on-clay","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mutuamadridopen.com\/en\/khachanov-reaches-first-1000-quarter-final-on-clay\/","title":{"rendered":"Khachanov reaches first 1000 quarter-final on clay"},"content":{"rendered":"

Doubles partners turned singles foes at the Caja Magica as Karen Khachanov and Andrey Rublev put their friendship aside to produce a tightly-contested fourth round on Tuesday.<\/span><\/p>\n

The pair, who are contesting the doubles quarter-finals together on Wednesday against Jamie Murray and Michael Venus, entered their singles clash with a 2-2 head-to-head against one another.<\/span><\/p>\n

Their most recent meeting was a Rublev victory over Khachanov in the Monte Carlo fourth round.<\/span><\/p>\n

This time in Madrid, it was Khachanov\u2019s turn to come out on top as he defeated the Monte Carlo champion 7-6(8), 6-4 to reach a quarter-final of a Masters 1000 on clay for the very first time.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI would say it\u2019s always tricky to play against each other, because from one side we know each other\u2019s game perfectly, because we\u2019ve been training (together) so many years, we know what to expect, but also we\u2019re a little bit nervous to play against each other, we\u2019re good friends, but on the court, we\u2019re rivals,\u201d said Khachanov, who will take on top seed Carlos Alcaraz or No.13 seed Alexander Zverev in the next round.<\/span><\/p>\n

Will they be okay to join forces in doubles tomorrow?<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI hope so, I hope he will play with me tomorrow, I need to see, I will ask him,\u201d said Khachanov with a smile.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cBut at the end of the day, this match is over, we need to have some time, maybe to absorb it for him. It was the same in Monte Carlo, the day before we played doubles, we lost a very tight match, and then the next day he beat me. After one day it\u2019s okay, life goes on. He\u2019s doing well this year, I\u2019m doing well, so we\u2019re just happy. It\u2019s unfortunate that we met in the fourth round.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Very little separated Khachanov and Rublev in the match, with the duo putting up similar numbers. It was Khachanov though who played the important points better, holding serve throughout and claiming the sole break of the contest.<\/span><\/p>\n

Neither player faced a break point in the opening set, which fittingly went to a tiebreak. A couple of loose backhands saw Khachanov get in trouble as he faced two set points, trailing 4-6.<\/span><\/p>\n

He saved both though, which swung the momentum his way and it was Rublev\u2019s turn to save two set points, one with a smooth volley winner that closed out a 20-shot rally.<\/span><\/p>\n

The No.5 seed could not fend off a third as Khachanov broke down the Rublev backhand to take the opening set in just under and hour.<\/span><\/p>\n

A poorly-executed drive volley from Rublev earned Khachanov an early break in the second set, which left his opponent enraged, smashing his racquet in frustration.<\/span><\/p>\n

Some great defence from Khachanov saw the No.10 seed carve out two match points; and all he needed was one, a big serve punching his ticket to the quarter-finals after one hour and 41 minutes of play.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cViva Espana,\u201d wrote Khachanov on the camera lens to celebrate the win. The 26-year-old had picked up just one victory in Madrid, in five previous appearances, and explained why he has managed to do better at the Caja Magica this year.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIn Madrid it\u2019s always a little bit of a different feeling, the altitude and the balls are flying much more. I think the years before, I was trying to play the same as I was playing the other years, but I think this year I changed a little bit the tactics and the strategy and I think it\u2019s paying off. Hopefully I can continue that way,\u201d said Khachanov.<\/span><\/p>\n

A former world No.8, Khachanov has been playing some great tennis these past nine months, reaching the semi-finals at the US Open, Australian Open and Miami.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Doubles partners turned singles foes at the Caja Magica as Karen Khachanov and Andrey Rublev put their friendship aside to produce a tightly-contested fourth round on Tuesday. The pair, who are contesting the doubles quarter-finals together on Wednesday against Jamie Murray and Michael Venus, entered their singles clash with a 2-2 head-to-head against one another. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":85792,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"mc4wp_mailchimp_campaign":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[837,875,843],"tags":[835,1004,831],"class_list":["post-85794","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-noticias-tenis-en","category-mutua-news-en","category-noticias-tenis-femenino-en","tag-2023-es-en","tag-karen-khachanov-en","tag-mutua-madrid-open-en-2"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mutuamadridopen.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85794","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mutuamadridopen.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mutuamadridopen.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mutuamadridopen.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mutuamadridopen.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=85794"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mutuamadridopen.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85794\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":85795,"href":"https:\/\/mutuamadridopen.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85794\/revisions\/85795"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mutuamadridopen.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/85792"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mutuamadridopen.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=85794"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mutuamadridopen.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=85794"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mutuamadridopen.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=85794"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}