Karen Khachanov defeated Otto Virtanen en route to the quarter-finals of the ATP 250 Almaty Open
The third-seeded Karen Khachanov (Russia) eliminated Otto Virtanen (Finland) to qualify for the quarter-finals of the ATP 250 Almaty Open tennis tournament in Kazakhstan. The Russian tennis player achieved a straight-set victory but needed two tiebreaks and more than one and a half hours of play to win by 2-0 (7:6, 7:6).
None of the players give a single breakpoint in the first set, which finally ended in tiebreak. Karen Khachanov made three mini-breaks in it and won all his serves to win by 7-2.
The second set started in similar fashion, but in the fourth game at service of Otto Virtanen, his opponent received three breakpoints on 0-40. Karen Khachanov did not miss his chance the won the game, taking a lead of 3:1. He confirmed his break by winning the next game for 4:1 and was expected to in easily the set and the match. At 5:3 the Russian player served for the match, but was stunned by his opponent, who returned the break and later equalized the score in the set to 5:5. Without a break by the end of the set, it entered into a tiebreak again. The result was running equal by 3-3 with one mini-break for each of the players, but in the end Karen Khachanov scored four consecutive points to win by 7-3 and thus advance ahead in the tournament.
The next opponent of Karen Khachanov in the quarter-finals of the ATP 250 Almaty Open will be the local favorite Beibit Zhukayev, who advanced ahead after retiring of Tomas Machac (Czech Republic) in the first set at 3:1.
