The Russian Karen Khachanov will play the quarter-finals of Roland-Garros this Tuesday, June 6 against the Serbian Novak Djokovic.
The Russian Karen Khachanov is making his merry way in this Roland-Garros 2023. Often inconsistent, he is having a very good first part of the season and can hope to destabilize the Serbian Novak Djokovic for a place in the semi-finals of Roland-Garros. The level of the Russian became much more impressive after his semi-final at the US Open, a real trigger for the latter. “I think after reaching the semi-finals of the US Open, a lot of things changed in my head, he explains. It’s mentally that I evolved. I was convinced that I could do this step forward, but you still want all of this to be validated by a result. That’s what I was missing. But since the US Open, it’s different.”
Biographical profile Karen Khachanov turned 27 on May 21, 2023. Born in 1996 in Moscow to parents who were doctors (Abgar and Natalia), the one nicknamed “Djan” started playing tennis in kindergartens. He left the family cocoon in 2012 to join Vedran Martic who trained him in Split. Between 2014 and 2017, he started a collaboration with Galo Blanco in Barcelona. In parallel, he studied at the Sozvezdie school in Moscow and graduated in 2018. During his youth, he met Veronika Shkliaeva who over time became his wife.
The Russian is before Roland-Garros 2023 11th in the world, that is to say that he is three places behind his best ranking (8th) obtained in July 2019.
In juniors, Karen Khachanov shared the tennis courts with Andrey Rublev and Daniil Medvedev. With the first city, he was rewarded at the Youth Olympic Games with a silver medal in doubles in 2014. With the second, he was vice-champion of Europe in doubles in 2013. In individual, it is him who won the same year. His professional debut was in Saint Petersburg when he received a wild card. At the time, the right-hander was not even referenced in the ATP rankings. Also in 2014, he won the first Futures before lifting his first Challenger in Istanbul in 2015.
He would then move up the hierarchy on the men’s tour and compete in his first Grand Slam at the US Open in 2016. He was knocked out in the second round by Kei Nishikori. In 2017 he managed to reach the round of 16 at Roland-Garros and he especially delivered one of the best matches of his career in the 3rd round of Flushing Meadows. He lost to Rafael Nadal in a sensational match (7/5 5/7 6/7 6/7). In 2023, he reached the last four of a Major for the first time in Melbourne and lost to Stefanos Tsitsipas. In Masters 1000, he beat in the final of Paris-Bercy in 2018 Novak Djokovic by displaying an irreproachable level of play. On the circuit, he was also able to win Chengdu in 2016, Marseille and Moscow in 2018.
Karen Khachanov was lucky enough to have Alexander Zavonts who is a Russian millionaire as an uncle. The engineer has used his connections in the past to get invites to Russian tournaments, allowing Karen to play high-level matches. Tennis is a fairly expensive sport, particularly because of the equipment and the large number of trips. Financial support like this, then, has been a godsend.
Born in Moscow, Karen Khachanov is Russian. He is not binational. On the other hand, he has Armenian origins which come from his parents.
Karen Kachanov has her family in Moscow. In 2020, he said he wanted to “spend more time in Dubai” because he “loves” the Emirati city.
Married since 2016 to Veronika Shkliaeva, Karen Khachanov, the Russian gave a crisp little anecdote about them after his first victory in Masters 1000 in 2018. “One day, we had to go to an internship, by plane. At the airport, I was fooling around with some buddies with a luggage cart and I ran into it. She was waiting with her mother at the check-in counter. Her mother asked her, ‘Who is this idiot?’ lovers now have a child in 2019 named David.
