Russia’s Karen Khachanov will look to make his third consecutive Grand Slam quarterfinal when he takes on Lorenzo Sonego in the round of 16 at the French Open on Sunday.
World No. 11 Karen Khachanov has been to the round of 16 at Roland Garros four other times — including last year, when he lost to Carlos Alcaraz. Since then, however, the Russian has been at his best at the majors recently. He was unable to compete at Wimbledon in 2022 due to the ban on Russian athletes at the All-England Club, but he made the semis at both the 2022 U.S. Open and the 2023 Australian Open.
Khachanov was forced to work hard in his first-round match in Paris. He was pushed to five sets by Frenchman Constant Lestienne, and Thanasi Kokkinakis nabbed a set from him in the third round.
World No. 48 Lorenzo Sonego has been on quite a tear during the first week at Roland Garros. The Italian dismissed Ben Shelton in the first round then Ugo Humbert in the second. But his big win of the tournament came over Russia’s Andrey Rublev in a five-set scorcher. Sonego had previously been enduring an underwhelming spring clay-court swing, but he is making up for it now.
Khachanov owns a 2-1 head-to-head against Sonego. The two men have played a pair of matches on clay and split the wins at one each. Their last match came in 2019, however, so that probably doesn’t say much about what to expect on Sunday.
This has the makings of a barnburner. Both men are playing well right now and they are both clearly capable of going the distance. The five-setter Sonego played against Rublev in the third round might introduce fatigue into the match, so if this goes the distance the nod would have to go to Khachanov.
Cheryl pick: Khachanov in 5
Ricky pick: Khachanov in 5
Khachanov in 4 or 5 but leaning towards 4.
WWW?
Their last respective matches lasted for the same period of time, 3h45m, so fatigue might not make a difference between the two (although Sonego played 5 sets and started his match about 1 h later than Khachanov).
They played twice on clay, both in 2019, 2 sets won by Khachanov, 3 by Sonego (out of these 3, two in TBs).
It is difficult to see any of them winning in 3.
Another marathon.
Silent K in 5.
Wow. Sonego double faults to give the set to KK. High level of tennis…