Karen Khachanov lifts level to beat Alexander Zverev in Toronto Open semifinal

Karen Khachanov saved a match point to beat top-seed Alexander Zverev in the Toronto Open semifinal on Wednesday night. The 29-year-old from Russia reached his second ATP 1000 Masters final, seven years after qualifying for his first-ever on the tour.

The Russian admitted he had to lift his level to beat a top player like Zverev. Khachanov registered a thrilling 6-3, 4-6, 7-6(4) win to set up the final clash against Ben Shelton.

In the opening set, Khachanov was able to get a break point with a brilliant backhand in the fourth game, which Zverev could not return. Zverev then bounced back strongly as he broke Khachanov’s serve in the 10th game of the second set.

In the final set, Khachanov made a comeback despite conceding a 3-1 lead in the tiebreaker.

“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.”

On the other hand, Zverev admitted he shouldn’t have missed some balls that he missed in the tiebreaker despite being brave.

“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.”