WHAT HAPPENED: The 6-foot-6 Karen Khachanov and 6-foot-4 Jack Draper play big boy tennis. Bludgeoning the ball and missile-launched serves are the name of the game for these two tall men.
And it was Khachanov who played the biggest on Friday to score a TKO third-round win when the hobbling Englishman could not finish their thoroughly entertaining slugfest in the Grandstand.
The No. 27 seeded Khachanov reached the final 16 of a Grand Slam for the eighth time in his career—but first at Flushing Meadows—with a 6-3, 4-6, 6-5 (ret.) win.
The ending is a bitter setback for Draper, 20, who is in the midst of a breakout season rocketing up through the ATP Tour rankings—he will break into the Top 50 in the next rankings. In his US Open debut, he had not lost a set through the first two rounds, punctuated by a three-set dismantling of No. 6 seeded Canadian Felix Auger-Aliassime the previous round.
A right leg problem surfaced after Draper lost his serve for 3-2 in the last set. He had a medical timeout, leaving the court with the trainer. Somehow Draper won the next two games for a 5-2 lead and a chance to win the set on his serve. But, with little leverage off his legs for his powerful serve (his second serve was now averaging in the mid-70s mph), and not able to move easily around the court, Draper had little defense for the barrage of big shots and serves that Khachanov continued to unload on him for the next three games.
Khachanov broke serve in the ninth game when Draper double faulted and held serve at love with three aces to pull even 5-5.
Draper lost his serve with three double faults for 5-6 and slowly walked to his chair. Head in hands, Draper dejectedly took off his wristbands, told the trainer he couldn’t continue and walked over to shake hands with Khachanov at the two-hour-and-31-minute mark.
WHAT IT MEANS: The 26-year-old Khachanov is a seasoned pro with a strong career resume. He has been a three-time Grand Slam quarterfinalist, twice at the French Open and in 2021 at Wimbledon. Khachanov climbed as high as No. 9 in the world in 2019 and claimed his biggest career title in 2018 at the Paris Masters.
The right-hander has had a solid 2022 campaign reaching the fourth round at the French Open, final at Adelaide, and semifinals at Belgrade and Doha.
MATCH POINT: With his booming serve (he had 14 aces against Draper) and powerful forehand Khachanov is a strong dark-horse pick to go deep into the second week. Up next for him is the winner of the No. 12 Pablo Carreno Busta and No. 18 Alex de Minaur match later on Friday.
