Karen Khachanov beat Alex Michelsen 6-4 7-6 (7-3) to advance to the semifinals at the National Bank Open presented by Rogers after reaching this stage in 2018 and 2019. Khachanov has become the seventh man to reach three or more semifinals at the Canadian Masters 1000 tournament since 2000.
Khachanov avenged his defeat against Michelsen, who beat his Russian rival in the third round of the Australian Open.
Khachanov set up a semifinal against Alexander Zverev, who came back from one set down to beat Alexey Popyrin 6-7 (6-8) 6-4 6-3. Zverev leads 5-2 in his seven head-to-head matches against Khachanov, The German won their last three matches, including a 6-3 6-2 win in Cincinnati in 2024. Khachanov has not dropped a set since the second round.
Khachanov is bidding to reach the second Masters 1000 final after winning in Paris Bercy in 2018. He advanced to two semifinals in Barcelona and Halle and lost against Taylor Fritz in the quarter final at Wimbledon.
Michelsen earned an early break in the second game to open up a 2-0 lead. Khachanov broke twice in the third and fifth games o win the first set 6-4.
Both players went on serve in the second set. Khachanov saved two set points at 4-5 with big serves and won the final five points from 2-3 down to win the tie-break 7-5.
“It was a very close, very competitive match. I had some advantages, then all of a sudden I was down and I was facing a set point on my serve. I served well, two serves. Those are the moments, always in a tennis match, you try to overcome… How you come out mentally from this situation is very important, so I’m really happy and proud that I was able to to close it out in the second set at the end”, said Khachanov.
