Karen Khachanov has returned to the final of a Masters 1000 tournament for the first time since 2018.
Khachanov will play Ben Shelton in the Canadian Open final, which could have big implications on both of their respective careers.
Despite his impressive run in Toronto, Khachanov has called for the Canadian Open to change something in 2026.
The last time that Khachanov reached the championship match in a tournament of this calibre was at the Paris Masters in 2018, when he played Novak Djokovic.
Photo by Jean Catuffe/Getty ImagesWhat Novak Djokovic said about Karen Khachanov after the Paris Masters final in 2018
Khachanov was just 22 years old heading into the 2018 Paris Masters, but was already the world number 18 in the ATP rankings.
However, what happened in the French capital was still far from expected, especially as Khachanov had never won a match at the Paris Masters before.
After beating the likes of Alexander Zverev, Dominic Thiem and saving two match points against John Isner, Khachanov found himself in the biggest final of his career by far.
Khachanov would play Djokovic, who had just come through a thrilling semifinal against Roger Federer that lasted over three hours, in the final.
Their only previous encounter came at Wimbledon earlier that year, where Djokovic had beaten Khachanov in straight sets.
However, on this occasion Khachanov was able to get revenge over Djokovic, beating him 7-5 6-4, to win the biggest title of his career.
After the match, Djokovic was asked in his post-match press conference if he was struggling physically following his gruelling semifinal with Federer.
While Djokovic admitted he had not recovered well, he also did not want the focus to be on him and instead how well Khachanov had played in Paris.
“I didn’t unfortunately. But I don’t want to talk about that,” Djokovic said at the time. “I want to talk about how well he played all week and, you know, absolutely deserved to win the match today.
“So all the credit to him. He deserves it. He’s a young player up and coming. But already established player, top player. And he showed great quality today and he showed why we’re going to see a lot of him in the future.”
Djokovic was then asked which parts of Khachanov’s game he found particularly challenging to deal with, to which he highlighted the serve that produced nine aces in the Paris Masters final.
“He was playing big from the back of the court. Flat backhands and forehand,” explained Djokovic. “He can really hurt you. That’s a big weapon. And serve. I mean, serve is really, really strong and precise. So his overall game was really, really great all week.”
Despite Djokovic’s praise towards Khachanov, he has won all eight of their matches since then.
Karen Khachanov’s Career Achievements
Khachanov winning the Paris Masters is still to this date the biggest title victory of his career.
The Russian has won seven titles in his career, but the Paris Masters is the only one of those that is above ATP 250 level.
However, it is not the only thing he has achieved in his career, with Khachanov reaching a career-high ranking of world number eight.
Photo by TIZIANA FABI/AFP via Getty Images
The now 29-year-old has also reached two Grand Slam semifinals, and won an Olympic silver medal at the Tokyo Games.
Karen KhachanovCareer-high rankingNo.8 (2019)Number of titles won7 (1 ATP 1000, 6 ATP 250)Best Grand Slam resultSemifinals (US Open 2022, Australian Open 2023)Other AchievementsOlympic silver medallist (Tokyo 2021), Davis Cup champion (2021)
Khachanov was left frustrated in the Paris Masters semifinal last year, but he will now have a chance to win his second title at this level.
The Canadian Open final will see Khachanov take on the aforementioned Shelton, who he lost his only previous meeting against, bringing back parallels to his Paris Masters final against Djokovic.