Karen Khachanov reaches quarter-final at the NOVENTI OPEN

Russian-Armenian Karen Khachanov reached his third quarter-final of 2019 on Wednesday at the NOVENTI OPEN in Halle, beating home favourite Jan-Lennard Struff 6-3, 3-6, 6-4.

Khachanov, playing at a career-high of No. 9 in the ATP Rankings, didn’t face a break point in either the first or third sets, and converted two of his seven chances against Struff, who was also playing at a career-high of No. 35.

“On grass, both of us are playing pretty aggressive, serving hard. So it was really difficult to find the rhythm on the opponent’s serve. I had to try to wait for the chances,” Khachanov said.

Both Khachanov and Struff made the second week of Roland Garros (Khachanov, QF; Struff, Round of 16). Khachanov’s other quarter-final of 2019 came in March at the BNP Paribas Open, the season’s first ATP Masters 1000 event, in Indian Wells.

Khachanov will next meet an Italian, either red-hot Roman Matteo Berrettini or Andreas Seppi. Berrettini beat #NextGenATP Canadian Felix Auger-Aliassime to win his second ATP Tour title on Sunday at the MercedesCup in Stuttgart. Berrettini leads their FedEx ATP Head2Head series 2-0, which includes their second-round match last week in Stuttgart.

“Both of them are good players, especially on grass courts. I think they are dangerous guys,” Khachanov said.