"Who told you that ?" said Aslan Karatsev with a sheepish smile.
“I was in the locker room packing my bag after the game and Mischa Zverev just asked me if I needed a few t-shirts and I said 'ok'. I also play with adidas so I took it. I had a contract with adidas five years ago so I still had a lot of clothes on, but it wasn't the last model. Maybe he saw that I was playing with the old ones. " .
It's not a literal rags-to-rich story - Karatsev's old kit still held up - but his career, like his jerseys, has definitely taken a turn for the better in the past two. month. "I don't really care which model of jersey I'm playing with. But I also think Mischa probably had too many of them."
Despite his rapid rise to the rank of the most prominent players on the planet, Karatsev will not be paid and will be wearing adidas clothes for the foreseeable future. Because clothing manufacturers typically finalize budgets and lock in endorsement deals in Q4, the Russian's breakthrough in Q1 2021 has yet to be fully rewarded.
"Since the ATP Cup and the Australian Open, we have received many offers, but we are waiting for a larger offer," said his agent Pierre Christen, who has just signed. “A few clothing brands have been contacted. It will be worth more if he finishes the year in the Top 20 or 30.
“He's been very busy for the past five weeks, but even more so since winning the Dubai title last week. I think a lot of people were waiting to see if he could confirm his run at the Open. from Australia. "
Karatsev had a contract with Head rackets before the Australian Open. But the only sponsor he found on his spectacular run at Melbourne Park was French cosmetics giant Guinot and his brand Mary Cohr, ahead of his semi-final match against Novak Djokovic.
His meteoric rise to 253rd place in the world at the start of his five-month suspension from the circuit last March to his place in the Top 30 is the culmination of 10 years of hard work, a better state of mind thanks to his coach Yahor Yatsyk, time spent with his compatriots in the Top 10 at the ATP Cup and a fluke.
Karatsev was late with a break in service in his Australian Open qualifier in Doha against Brandon Nakashima. He recovered to win that game and two other qualifiers, then got lucky on the trip to the first major tournament of the year.
It was originally booked on a charter flight from Doha to Melbourne whose passengers tested positive. If he had taken the original flight, he should have been locked up for two weeks in his hotel room instead of being able to train for two weeks with Indian Sumit Nagal.
I took the "healthy" flight, said Karatsev. “I was supposed to be on the [affected] covid flight but they made a mistake. A few players were put on the 5am flight and it was the one with no covid. I was lucky. started from there. "
The tennis world got to know Karatsev during Russia's race for the ATP Cup title. Top 10 teammates Daniil Medvedev and Andrey Rublev naturally attracted attention for their undefeated singles runs, but Karatsev played three doubles matches and was dubbed the team's “secret weapon” by Medvedev.
Karatsev attributes his ATP Cup experience in part to his journey to the Australian Open semifinals, which included a comeback after trailing by two sets against Felix Auger-Aliassime in the fourth round.
“Being in the ATP Cup gave me confidence to play on a big stage. When the Australian Open started I was nervous in the first round but after that it all got easier. I felt the game, I felt the blows. Against Felix, I was down by two sets. It was a difficult moment. I was asked in the press if I bother to speak when I went to the bathroom. J replied, "I just went to the bathroom. They had fun with that on social media."
Karatsev also took into account former world number 3 Grigor Dimitrov in the quarter-finals, before being stopped by future champion Djokovic.
This course won him wild cards for Doha, where he pushed Dominic Thiem, 4th in the world, to three sets in the second round, and for Dubai, where he won in the ATP 500. His wins in three sets against Jannik Sinner in the quarter-finals and Rublev in the semi-finals were particularly noted, especially this latest victory against his compatriot.
Rublev, who says he plays tennis like he plays chess, aggressively and dictating the game, was himself overtaken by Karatsev. One of the circuit's top ball hitters, Karatsev, able to knock out opponents with effortless winning shots even from seemingly neutral positions on the court left Rublev in awe, hitting 41 winning shots and ending the game. career of the world champion.
"My game is to stay close to the baseline and dominate, to be aggressive. If I hit winners it's good, but that's not my goal," said Karatsev, who crushed 27 winners. in straight sets to beat South African Lloyd Harris in the final.
"Rublev is a player of a particular kind. Once you back up against him it's over. It's hard to get back into the court from the baseline. The plan was to stay close to the line and don't give him the position he likes when he starts moving. I think I handled that pretty well. “
Karatsev's next milestone could be the Top 20, alongside compatriots Medvedev and Rublev. (Karen Khachanov is No. 22 and knocks on the door). Medvedev, for his part, can see this happening, but doesn't know how we got there. "I think no one can understand. I'm being honest. I think only he can try to explain at least what's going on," said the two-time major tournament finalist this week in Miami.
“In Dubai I watched his games. He was definitely playing, I would say, at the Top 10, Top 5. He beat some amazing guys in an extraordinary way there. I hope he can continue on that. launched throughout his career. Four Russians almost in the Top 20, it's unbelievable ".
While many players have struggled to regain their best form since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, Karatsev said he benefited from the stoppage.
Karatsev had started to gain momentum at the Challenger level before the tour was suspended in March 2020. He then put his racket down for the next three months, focusing exclusively on fitness (have you seen those calves !) and spending time with friends and family. In June, he traveled to Minsk for a two-week training block before heading to the United States to play a series of exhibitions.
On his return to the circuit, Karatsev won 19 of his first 20 matches at the ATP Challenger Tour level, winning titles in Prague and Ostrava.
"I played matches every day and it gave me a lot of confidence," he said. "When the circuit restarted, a lot of players weren't ready because they didn't have any matches. When I entered the pitch, I was already confident."
Born in 1993 in Vladikavkaz, near the Russian border with Georgia, Karatsev moved with his parents and sister to Israel when he was three years old. His mother Svetlana is a doctor and his father Kazbek played football before devoting himself to his son's career. One day, returning from the beach, the family noticed a tennis center and took their sister, Zarina, to play. “When I was four, I was trying to take the racket and play on the wall,” he says.
“My sister quit after two years, and then I started. All the attention shifted from my dad to me. I started training seriously when I was six or seven. already had a morning workout, a fitness workout and I became number 1 in Israel. That's how it all started (Zarina now works in finance in Israel).
"My father put all his energy into my tennis. He accompanied me every morning. But it was difficult to travel from Israel and the flights were very expensive. The federation helped with two or three tickets a year, but it wasn't. was not enough. "
Ultimately, the lack of opportunities in Israel forced the family to make a difficult decision: Aslan and his father would return to Russia to pursue his career.
“It was hard to get away from your mother and sister when you're only 12. I flew to Israel several times in the first few months to visit them. But I did. I took the chance because I found a sponsor in Russia. "
Despite this big move, Karatsev said he only trained once a day from the age of 12 to 15. "It was not like with the professionals".
At the age of 15, he moved to Taganrog, near Rostov-on-Don, in southwestern Russia, and began working with Aleksander Kuprin and Ivan Potapov.
At 21, former Russian professional Dimitry Tursunov began helping Karatsev, taking him to Halle, Germany, providing him with financial support and showing him "the right way to practice." Karatsev also spent time in Barcelona and a few months in Croatia before deciding to "stop with Europe".
Karatsev met his current coach at an ITF event in France three years ago and credits the change in his mental approach to Yatsyk, who is not in Miami this week after failing to get a visa for the United States. United.
“I have known a lot of situations where the game did not go the way I wanted and I broke rackets, I spoke to my coach, to the chair umpire, I blamed the court. I should have done some soul searching. to find a way to deal with it. You can't play well every day, so you have to deal with those situations. "
Before Miami, the FedEx ATP Race To Turin takes shape, with few surprises in the order of the Top 4: Djokovic, Medvedev, Rublev and Stefanos Tsisiptas. Who is in fifth position? Aslan Karatsev, of course, with 770 points ahead of Grigor Dimitrov and Matteo Berrettini, eighth. What seemed inconceivable at the start of the year - a place at the Nitto ATP Finals in Turin - is now quite possible for Karatsev.
“If you had told me that, I wouldn't have believed it,” he said. "You're deluding yourself. With success you never know when it's going to happen, but I always believed I could do it. Yahor kept telling me, 'You have to be mentally strong, you have to. strengthen your body. ”He pushed me every day, telling me that I was better than the Challenger level.
“But [that success] didn't happen in an instant. We've been working on it for 10 years, going all the way back to juniors. There have been a lot of ups and downs in the last three years. We worked very hard. "
Karatsev has reccently won at the Miami Open against Mikhail Kukushkin6-4 6-3 and will now face Sedastien Korda, a player in full anscension lately! Good Luck!
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