Aslan Karatsev

Aslan Kazbekovich Karatsev (Russian: Аслан Казбекович Карацев, Ossetian: Хъарацаты Хъазыбеджы фырт Аслан; born 4 September 1993) is a Russian professional tennis player. He has a career-high ATP singles ranking of world No. 14, achieved on 7 February 2022 and a best doubles ranking of No. 76, reached on 16 May 2022. He has won four ATP Tour titles combined, three in singles and one in doubles.

His biggest result is a silver medal in mixed doubles at the 2020 Summer Olympics, with Elena Vesnina.

Karatsev is known for his impressive campaign at 2021 Australian Open: In February, he passed through qualifiers and, on his first main draw of a Grand Slam major, he defeated seeds Diego Schwartzman, Félix Auger-Aliassime and Grigor Dimitrov to reach the semifinals in Melbourne. With that feat, he became the first man in the Open Era to reach the semifinals on his major debut.

Early life

Karatsev was born in Vladikavkaz, Russia. His father Kazbek Karatsev is an ethnic Ossetian and former footballer, and his mother Svetlana Karatseva is a medical doctor. Aslan has an older sister named Zarina. Karatsev's grandfather on his mother's side is Jewish.

When Karatsev was three years old he and his parents moved to Israel, making aliyah, and they lived in Israel for the next nine years. He started playing tennis there, in Tel Aviv-Jaffa. His first coach was Vladimir Rabinovich. His mother and sister live in Holon, Israel. Karatsev speaks fluent Hebrew, and says that Israel still feels like home.

When he was 12, he moved back to Russia, with his father, because of funding limitations in Israel. He moved to Taganrog where his new coaches were Alexandr Kuprin and Ivan Potapov. From 2011 to 2013 he was coached by Andrey Kesarev.

Karatsev fluently speaks Russian, Hebrew, and English, and holds dual Russian-Israeli citizenship.

Junior career

In 2007, Karatsev played his first junior match, at the age of 14, at a Grade-5 tournament in Russia. Although being his debut, it would be his only apparition until May 2009, where he started to play consistently at junior-level competitions across his country. He has won multiple U-14 tennis events all over Russia.

Karatsev had mixed results on ITF junior circuit, being less successful at international jr. events. He made his major jr. debut at the 2011 French Open, where he qualified for the main draw but lost in the first round. He then played at 2011 Wimbledon Championships, but was defeated again in the first round. Later that season, Karatsev played at the 2011 US Open, where he reached the second round. In doubles, the Russian partnered with compatriot and friend Evgeny Karlovskiy in most jr. events, including all four majors. Their best result was the quarterfinals at the 2011 French Open.

He reached an ITF junior combined ranking of No. 47 on 8 August 2011 and a win–loss record of 76–48 in singles and 26–16 in doubles.

Junior Grand Slam results – Singles:

Australian Open: A (-)
French Open: 1R (2011)
Wimbledon: 1R (2011)
US Open: 2R (2011)

Junior Grand Slam results – Doubles:

Australian Open: A (-)
French Open: QF (2011)
Wimbledon: 1R (2011)
US Open: 2R (2011)

Professional career

2013–20

Karatsev made his ATP Tour main-draw debut at the 2013 St. Petersburg Open, where he received entry to the main draw due to a wildcard. In the first round, he lost to compatriot and second seed Mikhail Youzhny. In the doubles event, he partnered Dmitry Tursunov and they reached the semifinals, losing to Dominic Inglot and Denis Istomin in a narrow deciding tiebreaker. In 2015, he won his first main-draw match on the ATP Tour at the Kremlin Cup, defeating Youzhny.

According to his father, Karatsev at 19 was mentored by Dmitry Tursunov who traveled with him to Halle, Germany to train there for a couple of months but returned due to a lack of money to continue. Then, the German academy itself invited Aslan to return to Halle. He trained there for two years, then got injured and could not really play for two years because of the trauma. He moved to Barcelona where he played at the Bruguera Tennis Academy for less than two years.

After searching for better coaching opportunities in Spain and Germany, Karatsev in 2019 hired his new coach, Yahor Yatsyk from Minsk. Yatsyk, a former professional tennis player one year his senior, used to help Nikoloz Basilashvili as a coach. During the COVID-19 lockdown Karatsev played exhibition matches in the United States.

At St. Petersburg, Karatsev earned his first top-50 win against Tennys Sandgren.

2021: Australian Open semifinalist, Olympic silver medal, top 15

Karatsev made his Grand Slam debut at the Australian Open, after coming through qualifying by beating Brandon Nakashima, Max Purcell and Alexandre Müller. It was here that he also notched his first top-10 victory, after upsetting 8th seed and world No. 9, Diego Schwartzman. He also upset 20th seed Félix Auger-Aliassime after dropping the first two sets and coming back to win in five to become the first qualifier to reach a Grand Slam quarterfinal since Bernard Tomic at Wimbledon 2011, and the first man to reach a quarterfinal in his Grand Slam debut since Alex Rădulescu in 1996 Wimbledon. He then defeated the former No. 3 player Grigor Dimitrov in four sets to reach the semifinals. By doing this, Karatsev became the first qualifier to reach the semifinals of a Grand Slam since Vladimir Voltchkov in 2000 Wimbledon and the first to do so at the Australian Open since Bob Giltinan in 1977, the lowest-ranked player to reach a Grand Slam semifinal since Goran Ivanišević in 2001 Wimbledon, and the first player to reach a Grand Slam semifinal on debut in the Open Era history. There, he lost to world No. 1 and eventual champion, Novak Djokovic, in straight sets. His run at the tournament raised his ranking from 114 to a career-high of world No. 42.

Karatsev's next tournament was Doha, where he beat Mubarak Shannan Zayid in straight sets in the first round, but lost to top seed Dominic Thiem in the second round after taking the first set in a tiebreak. He entered the doubles draw with compatriot Andrey Rublev and reached the semifinals, where they defeated Jérémy Chardy and Fabrice Martin. In the final, they defeated Marcus Daniell and Philipp Oswald in straight sets. Winning the tournament raised his doubles ranking from No. 447 to a career-high of No. 222. In Dubai, he beat Egor Gerasimov, Dan Evans and Lorenzo Sonego to reach his first ATP 500 quarterfinal, where he beat Jannik Sinner in three sets to advance to his first ATP 500 semifinal. In the semifinal, Karatsev ended the 23-match winning streak of second seed Andrey Rublev at ATP 500 events to reach his first singles final. In the final, he defeated Lloyd Harris to win his first title. The win allowed Karatsev to break into the top 30 for the first time in his career. He has become the second Russian tennis player to win his maiden title at 27, a record shared with Igor Kunitsyn.

Seeded 19th in Indian Wells he reached the fourth round on his Masters 1000 career debut defeating qualifier Salvatore Caruso and ninth seed Denis Shapovalov. At the 2021 Miami Open on his debut at this tournament he reached also the third round.

At the Serbia Open, Karatsev avenged his loss at the Australian Open by defeating world No. 1, Novak Djokovic, to advance to the final in the longest match of 2021 thus far. He was then defeated by Matteo Berrettini in three sets.

Karatsev notched two more top-ten wins, beating Schwartzman again in Madrid, and compatriot Daniil Medvedev in Rome. At the French Open, Karatsev lost in men's singles to Philipp Kohlschreiber in the second round. However, he partnered with Elena Vesnina in mixed doubles, and on his debut advanced to the final, but the pair lost to Joe Salisbury and Desirae Krawczyk.

At the Tokyo Olympics, he won the silver medal in mixed doubles with Elena Vesnina losing to compatriots Andrey Rublev and Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova in the final. He also participated in the singles and doubles events where he reached the second and lost in the first round, respectively.

In his debut at a Masters-1000 level in doubles, Karatsev reached the quarterfinals at the National Bank Open in Toronto partnering with Dušan Lajović. As a result, he entered the top 200 in doubles at world No. 172, on 16 August 2021. In singles seeded 15th and having a first round bye, he lost in the second round to Karen Khachanov.

At the 2021 BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells, he reached the fourth round at a Master 1000 for the first time in his career defeating 9th seed Denis Shapovalov before he lost to 8th seed Hubert Hurkacz. In doubles he reached the final with compatriot Rublev where they lost to Polasek/Peers. As a result, he reached the top 100 in the doubles rankings at World No. 92 on 18 October 2021.

At the 2021 Kremlin Cup in Moscow, Karatsev defeated compatriot Karen Khachanov in the semifinals to reach his third final of the season and in his career. He then defeated 6th seed Marin Čilić in the final to win his 2nd career title. With his successful run in Moscow, he made his debut in the top 20 in the rankings, rising to a ranking of World No. 19 on 25 October 2021.