Auger-Aliassime out in the second round, and Khachanov ends a seven-year wait

Felix Auger-Aliassime reached the semi-finals of the US Open twelve months ago. He leaves this one in the second round, beaten 6-7 (5), 6-3, 6-2, 6-2 by Karen Khachanov on Thursday evening, and the 750 ranking points that go with the difference will be felt long after the fortnight ends.

The Canadian No. 3 seed took the opening set on a tiebreak and then won seven games. He served harder than his opponent, hit more winners, 43 to 37, and won 20 of his 29 points at the net. None of it mattered next to one column of the statistics.

The second serve that decided it

Auger-Aliassime won 41% of the points behind his second serve, 20 of 49. Khachanov won 61% of his, 38 of 62. That is the match. It is also why a Canadian who faced 20 break points and saved 13 of them still lost by two breaks in each of the last two sets: Khachanov only needed to convert seven, and did. Auger-Aliassime made 47 unforced errors to 30 and served eight double faults to four.

The 2016 US Open boys’ champion had already needed four sets to get past Australian Rinky Hijikata in the first round, 7-5, 4-6, 6-3, 7-5.

What the defeat costs him

Under this tournament’s points allocation, a semi-final is worth 800 and reaching the round of 64 is worth 50. Auger-Aliassime therefore surrenders 750 of the points that have held him at World No. 4, and he does it in a season where the men immediately behind him are all still playing.

Flavio Cobolli, the Roland-Garros runner-up, is through. So are Daniil Medvedev, Alex de Minaur, Ben Shelton, Taylor Fritz and Frances Tiafoe. Every one of them arrives in the third round with a chance to close a gap that has just narrowed by 750 points without them hitting a ball.

Before the tournament, the projection had been that Auger-Aliassime would hold fourth place comfortably, with only Novak Djokovic positioned to take it from him. Djokovic went out on Sunday night.

No. 3 and No. 4 seeds out

For Khachanov, ranked No. 50, it is his second win over a top-10 player at Grand Slam level in nineteen attempts, and his first since June 2019.

The men’s draw has now lost the No. 3 and No. 4 seeds before the third round, along with the Cincinnati champion Arthur Fils, the No. 12 seed Rafael Jodar and Brandon Nakashima, who leads the ATP Tour in hard-court wins this season.