Khachanov saves five match points to beat Machac and reach Almaty quarterfinals

Karen Khachanov saved five match points, four of them in a single service game, to beat Tomas Machac of the Czech Republic 6-2, 4-6, 7-6 (7) in the second round of the Almaty ATP 250 on Thursday. The match lasted 2 hours and 32 minutes.

The No. 5 seed, ranked No. 25, looked comfortable through the first set, though he had to save three break points to hold for 1-1 and two more for 2-2. Then Machac lifted his first-serve percentage from 59 to 76 in the second set. Khachanov found less and less on the Czech’s second serve, and Machac took the set on his third set point with a backhand winner down the line.

Four match points saved at 5-6

The third set lasted more than an hour. Khachanov saved two break points at 1-2. Then, serving at 5-6, he saved four match points. In the tiebreak he had a match point of his own at 6-5, which Machac saved, and he saved a fifth match point at 6-7. A forehand volley put him ahead 8-7, and Machac netted a backhand on Khachanov’s second match point. Khachanov finished with 14 aces and landed 76 percent of his first serves.

“He pushed me to the limits. I stayed there; I survived,” Khachanov said. “It’s an important win, of course. A very emotional one as well. He was taking the ball early, coming to the net, and playing at a really high speed. So I had to lift my intensity, the speed of the ball, and then try to take the lead if I wanted to have a chance. I served four or five aces in the tiebreak, so precise. He did pretty similarly, so it was really a small margin for the winner today.”

He credited the crowd. “People were cheering a lot for me. They were giving me a lot of energy to keep fighting. That’s always a joy to play in front of a packed crowd cheering your name.”

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Bublik next

Khachanov, the 2024 champion, now leads Machac 2-0, after beating him 6-4, 7-6 (4), 4-6, 7-6 (5) at the 2024 Australian Open. He has reached his 70th tour-level quarterfinal, his first indoors since Paris in 2024, and has won 11 of his 14 matches since the start of September. He will face No. 3 seed Alexander Bublik in the quarterfinals of the Almaty Open.