MELBOURNE, Australia – Aslan Karatsev had never managed to get the main draw of a Grand Slam tournament. Now he just refuses to leave the Australian Open.
Karatsev, a 114-year-old Russian ranked 114th, became the first man of the professional era to reach the semifinals of his first major tennis tournament by beating 18th-ranked Grigor Dimitrov 2-6. 6-4, 6- Tuesday 1, 6-2.
“It’s an amazing feeling,” Karatsev said. “Of course it’s the first time. First time in the main draw, first semis. It’s amazing. ”
This is a good word for what he has been able to do. Karatsev failed in nine previous attempts to go through the qualifying rounds to play in a Grand Slam tournament.
He is now making the most of it, beating Dimitrov, a three-time major semifinalist, after also eliminating two top seed players, No. 8 Diego Schwartzman and No. 20 Felix Auger-Aliassime.
“It’s great to see. I think it’s great to see,” Dimitrov said of Karatsev’s success. “Surprised? No.”
Annoyed by the rubbish that developed on Monday, Dimitrov was not at his best. He finished the game barely able to serve – and barely able to climb the stairs when he left Rod Laver Arena.
Dimitrov jumped to first position with three service breaks in the first set. He then maintained seven break points in Karatsev’s first two serve games in the second set, but converted none.
It was then that Karatsev began to believe that he could further extend his remarkable career.
“At first it was very difficult to get on my nerves,” Karatsev said. “It was tricky. I tried to play in the second set, to find a way to play.”
Dimitrov stopped chasing shots in the third set, then was visited by a coach and took medical time to treat a muscle problem in his lower back.
He hadn’t dropped a set in his first four games at the Australian Open, but he said he had trouble putting on his socks before the game.
“It started yesterday,” Dimitrov said, “really.”
Karatsev is the lowest man to reach the semifinals of the Australian Open since Patrick McEnroe – John’s brother – was also number 114 in 1991 – and the lowest man to reach the semifinals in any Slam since that Goran Ivanisevic was no. 125 to 2001 at Wimbledon.
Karatsev will play eight-time champion Novak Djokovic or Alexander Zverev. Russians Daniil Medvedev and Andrey Rublev will meet in the quarter-finals on Wednesday in the other half of the draw, meaning there will be two Russians in the semi-finals at Melbourne Park.
Asked about his thoughts on the possibility of an all-Russian final, Karatsev was left with what he knows.
“I try not to think about it,” he said, adding that he simply “goes from party to party.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.