Aslan Karatsev is a professional tennis player from Russia. On November 8, 2021, he reached a career-high singles ATP ranking of world No. 15 and a career-high doubles ranking of No. 89. In February 2021, Karatsev competed in the Australian Open qualifiers. He reached the semifinals after defeating eighth seed Diego Schwartzman, 20th seed Felix Auger-Aliassime, and 18th seed Grigor Dimitrov in his first main draw of a major. In the Open Era, Karatsev is the first man to reach the semifinals in his Grand Slam debut.
He won his first ATP title in doubles with Andrey Rublev at the Qatar Open in March 2021. Karatsev won his first ATP singles title at the 2021 Dubai Open as a wildcard, defeating South African Lloyd Harris in the final. Karatsev joined Wayne Ferreira (1995) and Thomas Muster (1997) in reaching the final as an unseeded player who defeated four seeded players. As a result, for the first time in his career, he entered the top 30 of the ATP singles rankings. Karatsev reached the final of the Serbia Open on April 24, 2021, after defeating world No. 1 Novak Djokovic on his home court. He won a silver medal at the 2020 Summer Olympics.
Karatsev made his Grand Slam debut at the Australian Open, defeating Brandon Nakashima, Max Purcell, and Alexandre Muller in qualifying. He also won his first top-10 match here, defeating Diego Schwartzman, the eighth seed and world No. 9. After losing the first two sets to 20th seed Felix Auger-Aliassime, he came back to win in five sets to become the first qualifier to reach a Grand Slam quarterfinal since Bernard Tomic at Wimbledon in 2011, and the first man to reach a quarterfinal in his Grand Slam debut since Alex Radulescu at Wimbledon in 1996.
He then advanced to the semifinals by defeating former No. 3 Grigor Dimitrov in four sets. By doing so, Karatsev became the first qualifier to reach the semifinals of a Grand Slam since Vladimir Voltchkov in 2000 Wimbledon and the first to do so at the Australian Open since Bob Giltinan in 1977, the lowest-ranked player to reach a Grand Slam semifinal since Goran Ivanisevic in 2001 Wimbledon, and the first player in Open Era history to reach a Grand Slam semifinal on debut. There, he was defeated in straight sets by world No. 1 and eventual champion Novak Djokovic. His performance at the tournament propelled him from world No. 114 to world No. 42, a career high.
Australian Open - SF (2021)
French Open - 2R (2021)
Wimbledon - 1R (2021)
US Open - 3R (2021)
