Khachanov To Compete For Gold, Reaches Tokyo Final
The ROC’s Karen Khachanov guaranteed himself at least a silver medal on Friday at the Tokyo Olympics as he produced a dominant display to move past Spaniard Pablo Carreno Busta 6-3, 6-3 to reach the final.
The 12th seed, who is making his Olympic debut this week, was strong on serve throughout, hitting 10 aces and winning 93 per cent (26/28) of his first-service points to advance in 80 minutes.
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Khachanov will next face either top-seeded Serbian Novak Djokovic or German Alexander Zverev in the gold medal match.
The 25-year-old has enjoyed runs to the semi-finals at the Open Parc Auvergne-Rhone-Alpes Lyon and the Great Ocean Road Open this year. Khachanov also equalled his best Grand Slam result at Wimbledon earlier this month as he advanced to the quarter-finals (l. to Shapovalov).
Carreno Busta upset World No. 2 Daniil Medvedev in the quarter-finals but could not match those performance levels against Medvedev’s countryman Khachanov on Friday. The sixth seed, who won his first ATP 500 trophy and sixth tour-level title earlier in July at the Hamburg European Open, had dropped just one set en route to the last four.