Karatsev Knocks Out Khachanov, Meets Cilic For Moscow Title

by Staff | October 23rd, 2021, 11:58 pm
  • 12 Comments

A Russian was assured in the Moscow final and that man is Aslan Karatsev who upended his countryman Karen Khachanov 7-6(7), 6-1 in semifinal action on Saturday.

Karatsev, who was a total unknown at this time last year, had to save four set points in the opening set before pulling away in the second.

“I tried to not think about the score in the tiebreak and just play point by point,” Karatsev said on court. “At 5-6 I made a great return and he got nervous and that is how I managed to win it.”


The 28-year-old Karatsev is into his third ATP final — all this year — and will seek a second title after Dubai. He’ll meet 2-time tournament champion Marin Cilic in the final.

The Croat reached his 34th career title match topping lucky loser Ricardis Berankis 6-3, 6-4.

“It was a tough match, Ricardas played well,” Cilic said to the crowd. “The first set was great from my side. I served amazing but then Ricardas began to find his rhythm and played much better in the second set. I managed to play a tough second set. Mentally it was difficult, but I managed to play my best tennis at the right time.”

Cilic will look for a second title of the year, third in Moscow and 20th of his career. He won in Moscow in 2014 and 2015.


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12 Comments for Karatsev Knocks Out Khachanov, Meets Cilic For Moscow Title

Wog Boy Says:

All that tough talking by Chairman Dan and Australian immigration minister that they are not going to let unvaccinated people (players) into the country but according to leaked email sent to WTA players they had to back down:

“ An email sent to players states unvaccinated players can arrive in Australia any time after December 1, but will need to undergo a mandatory two-week hard hotel quarantine period while also submitting to regular COVID-19 testing.”

I think Chairman Dan was informed that I am coming to Victoria for AO;)


Giles Says:

^^ ROFL. Yep it’s all about you Bog Boy! 😱😱


Wog Boy Says:

Gisele, don’t be so disappointed, there is a good chance the Federal government will put the ban on unvaccinated foreigners, state government cunningly decided not to ban unvaccinated foreigners entering state of Victoria but instead asked Federal government to do that for entire Australia.
So, relax Gisele, there is still good chance that Nole is not playing AO 2022.
I’ll keep you posted, Gisele, you are a good girl…though slightly mentally disturbed since FO 2021, not that you were quite right before either.


Dave Says:

Wog Boy,

If you saw any of the Murray match today you will have no doubts that he will be getting back to the top 10. His movement looks the best it has all comeback.


Wog Boy Says:

Hi Dave,
Thanks for the tip, I just checked, they will be showing the match tonight on “beIN sports” so I will record and watch it, atm they are showing Alcaraz vs Evans,


Chrisford1 Says:

WB –
I used to think Novak was brighter than I do now. I have sort of dropped him a notch or two on dumb mistakes and how fads suck him in.
He’s already had Covid, the vaccine is safe, the way Europe is going without vacc passports he would become a wealthy leper. If he is truly serious about 21 Slams or being a force in tennis after 2021 he just has to suck it up and get vaccinated.
I think like Pepe, Novak has blundered into another ‘medical/philosophical’ thing he embraces without sensible holding back at 1st. You know that the anti-vaxxers are on him, urging him to be another celebrity athlete giving up their career for “The Cause”.

Dave – I’m not paying right now, but what little I saw on You Tube made me happy he was looking good on court – but also trepidation. About him coming back, playing good but not looking to get any big titles, then getting hurt and 20 years later we see Andy in some exoskeleton or whatever because one hip is gone…He’s 34. I’d like to see him healthy enough to play tennis with his kids when he is older, not to mention ski, walk a beach with them.


Wog Boy Says:

CF1,
I separated Nole private and “spiritual” life and Nole tennis player while back, I don’t think it is about Nole’a brightness and intelligence, I think he is extremely bright and intelligent person. I think it is about his life experience which is nonexistent, all his life from young age was practice and tennis courts and hotels. Jelena came when he was 17 and shut the door.
He is extremely easily led into “spiritual” life by Jelena simply because he never had any other choice, did he?
Pepe is the past, Jelena has another guru now, guru that, after USO, she shamelessly took with her to Serbian holiest places (monasteries and churches) in Kosovo, the birthplace of Serbian nation, I could not believe what I was seeing.
She shares that guru with another bored and rich wife, Ana Divac. Yes, if the surname sounds familiar, she is the wife of Vlade Divac, former NBA basketball player.
Almost forgot, the guru’s name is Mohanji, you can google him, another conman in the lives of rich and bored wives.


Wog Boy Says:

Paul McNamee, former AO director publicly apologised to Novak Djokovic for unprecedented hysteria and attacks on Novak Djokovic by Australian media and some politicians, I myself couldn’t believe all the articles in the media and statements by some politicians regarding Nole, that’s beyond anything I’ve seen before, they are literally crucifying him!

Insteda of me giving the link and buggering entire thread you can google …
Paul McNamee on Twitter “ I apologise on behalf of my country”


Django Says:

Wog boy
I saw Jelena and Mohanji. She’s got a lot of nerve.


Tennispompom Says:

CF1
A sensible person gets vaccinated for health reasons, only a fool allows himself to be injected because of media coercion.

As you yourself said, Djokovic has already had COVID-19, and came through with flying colours. His immune system is clearly good enough to get him through any future infection, and now that he has had COVID-19, his immunity is even stonger, having been primed to fight the real virus, not just some weebly, untested copy of the spike protein.

Having said that, it wouldn’t surprise me if Djokovic has already been vaccinated, but is deliberately staying out of the debate and keeping his vaccination status private. Has it occured to anyone that he might have been vaccinated with Sinopharm, which is widely available in Serbia? It’s a whole inactivated virus vaccine, with equal or better protection against severe disease than the mRNA and Adenovirus vector vaccines generally available in the West? This vaccine creates an immune reaction to all parts of the virus, not just the Spike glycoprotein, making it much more resilient in the face of virus variants and mutations. Also, by using the tried and tested vaccine technology, it has an excellent safety profile, and is widely reported to have minimal side effects and a lot fewer adverse effects than mRNA and Adenovirus vector. The quantity injected is also stable and can be calculated, whereas the mRNA and AVV vaccines cannot be quantified, because the number of Spike-proteins produced by the body’s own cells varies from person to person, the differences are huge. That’s one of the reasons why the scientists are unable to quantify the titre level – it varies so much that they just can’t tell.

If ND, or any other AO candidate, has used Sinopharm, or Sinovac, or Novavax, or any of a number of other vaccines used across the globe, they will have put a cat among the pidgeons, because Australia, US, UK and EU have not authorised a single non-mRNA or non-viral vector vaccine yet. If they do refuse to accept these vaccines, the entire world will realise that it’s not about vaccine efficacy, but about money and geopolitics.

This is an opportunity for Djokovic and other elite players to make a real difference to the populations of the whole world, who currently have to face the risk, but have no option to choose the vaccine which best fits their own medical history.


chrisford1 Says:

Tennispompom – Real nice to see you back on Tennis-X and posting your usual thoughtful type of comments!
I’d say that the reason nations want vaccination is that for now, there is no system for analyzing and certifying level of antibodies in people who claim to have “natural immunity”. Dr Sanjay Gupta in a podcast with Joe Rogan, discussed the problems with creating an alternate global system to credit “natural immunity” on top of vaccination.
First, people lie, and would claim to have had Covid before to try and escape mask use or vaccination. No standard of analysis or minimum level is agreed to by any country. Gupta said that when they tested people who claimed natural immunity by their personal word, or were tested positive or even hospitalized, 40% HAD NO ACQUIRED IMMUNITY WHATSOEVER.
As far as I know, with acceptance of J&Js killed virus vaccine vs. mRNA ones, accepting other killed virus vaccines as good enough to create an international travel vaxx passport is coming – like Sputnik V, Sinovac, etc.
Of course, if some athletes wish to end international travel on vaxx fears, their choice. But I will call it a dumb choice.


Tennispompom Says:

CF1 – what a memory, I’m impressed! Must be at least 5 or 6 years since tennis.com started insisting on FB logins, which I don’t use. I remember you too!

Hope you’re well and enjoying the tennis. Lots has happened since then – Medvedev is a bit good – my new second favourite, displacing Murray who turned out to be a silly chump. Monfils continues to delight – and may he do so for another 5 years!

J&J is an adenovirus based vaccine, just like AZ and Sputnik. Not sure about Sinovac. I was referring to the Whole Inactivated Virus vaccines like Valneva and Sinopharm, there’s an Indian one too.

You’re right, there is no agreed standard for determining the titre of antibodies, because everybody’s immunity is different, and antibodies – which wane with time – are only a small part of it. The presence of antibodies in the serum only signifies a state of alertness post infection or vaccination, and it’s normal for them to wane after a few months.

Some antibody tests can distinguish between a person who acquired the immunity by mRNA or Adenovirus vaccination and a person who acquired it through natural infection or whole virus vaccination – the second group have a larger variety of SARS-COV-2 antibodies.

While antibodies are only present in the aftermath of the infection, the most important part of the immune system are the macrophages and other cells which aren’t specific to the virus, and the memory cells which spring into action when the virus comes calling again, and create a lot of virus-specific antibodies. And guess what, there are tests for these too – for example T-Detect (FDA approved) and T-SPOT.COVID (MHRA approved), which look for T- and B-cells. If those are present, then the person has had COVID-19. So there is a way to test.

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