Karen Khachanov was born on May 21, 1991, in Moscow, Russia, to his parents Abgar and Natalia. His father is Armenian, and Khachanov’s grandfather was American. The Russian player started his tennis career at age three when his parents enrolled him in a tennis club.
Khachanov’s tennis inspirations are Marat Safin and Juan Martin del Potro. However, he also took inspiration from attending the Kremlin Cup in Moscow and met Yevgeny Kafelnikov, Nikolay Davydenko, Andrei Chesnokov, Igor Andreev, and Igor Kunitsyn at the competition.
Khachanov showed plenty of promise during his youth career and won the Junior of the Year award in 2013. Also, the Russian won silver at the 2014 Summer Youth Olympics in the doubles category alongside compatriot Andrey Rublev.
The 2013 season was significant for Khachanov as he breakthrough into senior tennis, mostly on the ITF circuit. However, he received his first action at ATP events this season, making his debut at the St Petersburg Open and appearing at the Kremlin Cup.
Khachanov continued to build his experience on the ITF and Challenger Tours in 2014 and 2015. However, he started to appear more regularly in higher-level ATP competitions. His first Masters 1000 experience came at the 2014 Miami Open when he entered on a wildcard but lost in the first round to Daniel Gimeno Traver. Khachanov also participated in the Kremlin Cup again in 2014 and was eliminated in the first round.
Consistent wins at the ITF level led Khachanov to his first Grand Slams in mid-2015. The Russian player reached the first round of qualifiers at Wimbledon and the second qualifying stage of the US Open in 2015. He ended 2015 strongly at the Challenger level, winning his first title at Istanbul.
By 2016, Khachanov regularly made the qualifiers at Grand Slams, but he couldn’t make the main draw of the first three majors. A sharp upturn in form late in the season led to an excellent run in 2016. Khachanov reached his first Grand Slam main draw at the US Open and lost in the first round. He wasn’t disheartened, though; he won his first ATP title at the 2016 Chengdu Open. The Russian defeated Albert Ramos Vinolas in the final.
Years of consistency followed for Khachanov as he established himself on the ATP Tour. In 2017, he reached all four main draws of the majors and even progressed to round four at the Roland Garros before defeat to Andy Murray.
The following season was one of Khachanov’s best as he won the Marseille Open and the Kremlin Cup and defeated Novak Djokovic at the Paris Masters to claim his first ATP Masters 1000 title. Due to his impressive 2018 campaign, Khachanov started 2019 ranked 11th in the ATP Rankings, but he couldn’t maintain consistency and was in and out of the Top 10 throughout 2019. One highlight of this season was a quarter-final run at the French Open.
A similar patchy season came again in 2020 as the Russian’s best performance came once more at the Roland Garros with a fourth-round run. After two years of inconsistency, Khachanov returned in 2021 in better form. Despite an up-and-down start to the season, the Russian hit his stride in the summer, making it to the Wimbledon quarter-final for the first time in his career.
More success followed at the Tokyo Olympics, where Khachanov claimed a silver medal for Russia after losing to old friend Alexander Zverev in the final. Khachanov then produced some of his best tennis in 2022 and 2023 to cement his place in the ATP Top 20.
He made a strong start in 2022 by making the Adelaide International 1 final before losing to Gael Monfils. A third-round run at the Australian Open and a fourth-round appearance at the French Open followed. Then, the Russian found form at the US Open and made it to his first major semi-final, only to lose against Casper Ruud.
Khachanov backed up his US Open success with two more solid performances in 2023. At the Australian Open, he progressed to another major semi-final and reached the last eight at the 2023 Roland Garros.
The Russian ended the season strongly by claiming his first ATP title in five years at the Zhuhai Championships. He claimed a sixth career title just a few months later at the Qatar Open in 2024.
