Karen Khachanov

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    Karen Khachanov: Russia's ambitious tennis player with a real attacking instinct

    Russian tennis pro Karen Khachanov thrills crowds at the biggest ATP tournaments with spectacular baseline hitting and passionate on-court displays. He was born in 1996 to Armenian parents in the Russian capital, Moscow. He started playing tennis at just three years old, at kindergarten. Even as a teenager he was highly ambitious, dreaming at age 12 of a career as a professional tennis player. Khachanov's first coach was Croatia's Vedran Martic, who guided him through his junior years and returned as his coach on the big tour from 2017 to 2020. Karen left his home country of Russia at 15 to train professionally in Croatia and Spain.

    The milestones of Karen Khachanov's ATP career

    Karen Khachanov made his ATP Tour debut in 2013 at just 17 years old, and four years later had already reached the fourth round of the French Open. In November 2018 he lifted the trophy at the prestigious ATP World Tour Masters indoor event in Paris-Bercy, beating John Isner, Alexander Zverev and Dominic Thiem in succession, before facing Novak Djokovic in the final, who had won 22 matches in a row up to that point. Khachanov won surprisingly comfortably, 7-5, 6-4. That made him the first Russian since Davydenko to win an ATP Masters 1000 title, and also the first unseeded champion in Paris since David Nalbandian in 2007. Back in 2013, at 17, Khachanov had already made his Davis Cup debut for the Russian team in the play-off ties against South Africa, winning his very first rubber.

    Khachanov is an aggressive baseliner with heavy groundstrokes

    Right-hander Khachanov is regarded on tour as an aggressive baseline player with heavy groundstrokes and a thunderous serve. His playing style bears a strong resemblance to that of his role model, Marat Safin. With relentlessly attacking tactics, he tries to dictate play, look to win free points off his serve, or take control of rallies with his forehand.

    The forehand is unquestionably his biggest weapon in tennis, and he uses it with tremendous pace and heavy spin to run opponents ragged around the court and win the point. To do so, he'll often run around his backhand as well. With his aggressive game plan, Khachanov frequently manages to hit outright winners or simply wear opponents down with relentless attacking play.

    Karen Khachanov's idols and hobbies

    Karen Khachanov's big tennis idols growing up were Marat Safin and Juan Martin del Potro. He names Safin, whom he met at 16 in Helsinki, as his dream opponent. Khachanov has broad sporting interests and also admires LeBron James, Conor McGregor and Cristiano Ronaldo. He's said that if he weren't a tennis player, he'd most like to work as a basketball player or in sports management. The rest of his family is also very sport-mad: his father, for instance, played volleyball at a high level.

    Karen Khachanov has been married to his wife Veronika Shkliaeva since 2016. Their son David was born on 14 September 2019. He's good friends with fellow Russian pros on the ATP Tour such as Daniil Medvedev and Andrey Rublev. Andrey Rublev played at the same tennis club, and he's known Daniil Medvedev since childhood. The three have played together at many tournaments in Russia, and both fellow pros were guests at Khachanov's wedding. By the way, Karen Khachanov's nickname is “Djan”, which roughly means “good guy”.

    In 2018, Karen Khachanov completed his bachelor's degree in sports science at a university in Moscow. As a teenager he was a regular visitor to the ATP tournament in Moscow, where he met many Russian tennis pros such as Yevgeny Kafelnikov, Nikolay Davydenko, Andrei Chesnokov, Igor Andreev and Igor Kunitsyn. His favourite surfaces are clay and indoor hard courts. His favourite shot in tennis is his serve, aided in no small part by his imposing height of 1.98m.

    Buy Karen Khachanov's tennis kit at Tennis-Point

    When it comes to choosing his racket and strings, Karen Khachanov takes no chances with his game. He relies on Wilson tennis rackets and Luxilon tennis strings to unleash his powerful shots on his opponents. From head to toe he also wears Nike tennis clothing, including Nike tennis shoes. Karen Khachanov stores his tennis kit in Wilson tennis bags. At Tennis-Point you'll find collections from all the leading brands, so you can kit yourself out with the very same products as the tennis pros.