AUSTRALIAN OPEN – Karen Khachanov in the semi-finals after the abandonment of Sebastian Korda, hit in the wrist

It was an expected heavyweight shock, and it fell short. More precisely, it only lasted one set, the first, hotly contested and finally won by Karen Khachanov. After which, Sebastian Korda, hit in the right wrist, dropped out of the middle of the 2nd set to finally be forced to retire in the 3rd, when he was down 7-6 (5), 6-3, 3-0.

Taking advantage of a very shy start from his opponent, Khachanov quickly took the lead in this first men’s quarter-final on the program by breaking away 3-0, before serving at 5-3 to win the first set. Moment chosen by Korda to spring from his box and pick up the score thanks to a nice backhand acceleration.

At that moment, and while he seemed to be recovering the wonderful fluidity of his strikes, the young American began to take over, in particular with a mini-break tie-break entry. But Khachanov then made all his experience speak to finally win this decisive game 7 points to 5 on his third set point, thanks to a huge rally, concluded with an acceleration of a “heavy maousse” backhand along the line.

For Korda, the dike gave way suddenly

We did not know it yet, but we had just experienced, during this decisive game, the only thrill of this match, which was very disappointing for the rest, and very cruel afterwards. Korda resisted again to lead 3-2 in the second set. It was then that he took a medical time-out to have himself manipulated and put a bandage on his right wrist. To tell the truth, we had not really seen it coming, attributing its many unforced errors to the stress of playing its first Grand Slam quarter-final, at 22 years old. But no, there was a problem elsewhere. A big concern.

Eventually, the dike gave way almost all at once. Korda lost his serve at 3-3, had two more break points in the next game, perfectly saved by Khachanov thanks to two service winners. And this time it was over. The Russian enquired 13 of the next 14 points by rightly insisting on the forehand of his opponent, who could no longer cover his shots and chained unforced errors on that side. Finally, led 3-0 in the 3rd set, the son of Petr Korda, winner in Melbourne 25 years ago, stopped the charges.

At a press conference, “Sebi” then clarified that he had already experienced an alert in Adelaide where he had reached the final (against Novak Djokovic) just before the tournament. Then the pain had forgotten him, until she suddenly remembered her bad memory at the start of the 2nd set, on a badly centered forehand return.

Khachanov, the 50th of the Open era

As Karen Khachanov said later on the microphone, this is not the way he wanted to win this match. The fact remains that the Russian qualifies for the second time in a row for the last four of a major tournament, after the US Open last year where he lost to Casper Ruud. And that can’t be a coincidence.

In general, his regularity in major events is beginning to be seen seriously since the 20th in the world has become the 50th player in the Open era in Melbourne to have reached the quarter-finals of all the Grand Slams. A stage that he had also reached at Roland-Garros in 2019 and at Wimbledon in 2021, beating Sebastian Korda at the end of a memorable match in five sets.

The power, the chest, the heaviness of the shots and more generally the big engine of the Russian player make him an increasingly serious client in these major meetings, now also that his emotional management has been brought into tune with his talent. . Will that be enough in the next round against Stefanos Tsitsipas or Jiri Lehecka? This is an other story. But we are now certain: we must not sell the skin of the Russian before having killed him.