Karen Khachanov records 200th hard-court win of career with opening victory in Cincinnati

Karen Khachanov is fresh off an incredible week and a half in Toronto, where he reached the second Masters 1000 final of his career—and his first since 2018, when he won indoors in Paris—before finishing runner-up to Ben Shelton on Thursday night.

And on Sunday night, he kept the wins coming.

Khachanov defeated French qualifier Valentin Royer in an entertaining two-setter in his opening match in Cincinnati, 6-4, 7-6 (6), for the milestone 200th hard-court win of his career.

He very nearly hit that milestone in the Toronto final, coming within just four points of beating Shelton multiple times—the American served to stay in the match twice in the third set, at 4-5 and 5-6, before clawing out a marathon 6-7 (5), 6-4, 7-6 (3) victory.

But Khachanov hit the big 2-0-0 in Cincinnati anyway with his victory over Royer, becoming the 10th man born in 1990 or later to record that many career hard-court wins, and just the seventh man born in 1996 or later—or even 1992 or later—to achieve the feat.

MEN BORN SINCE 1990 WITH 200+ CAREER WINS (tour-level):

• 318: Grigor Dimitrov [born in 1991]
• 309: Daniil Medvedev [born in 1996]
• 288: Alexander Zverev [born in 1997] (plays tonight)
• 264: Milos Raonic [born in 1990]
• 253: Andrey Rublev [born in 1997]
• 228: David Goffin [born in 1990]
• 221: Taylor Fritz [born in 1997]
• 219: Stefanos Tsitsipas [born in 1998]
• 212: Alex de Minaur [born in 1999]
• 200: Karen Khachanov [born in 1996]

Khachanov's victory over Royer was anything but straightforward, particularly the second set, where he not only had to battle back from 4-2 down, but also from 4-1 down in the tie-break—he even faced a set point down 6-5 in the breaker. But he snuck out the last three points in a row to finally close the Frenchman out.

And with that victory, Khachanov has now won 13 of his last 16 matches on the tour, a stretch that dates back to mid-way through the grass-court season and includes reaching the semifinals in Halle, the quarterfinals of Wimbledon and the final in Toronto.

He went into that stretch ranked just outside the Top 20, at No. 22, and he's now just outside the Top 10, at No. 12. A former world No. 8, he has a good chance of returning to the Top 10 after Cincinnati.

Awaiting him in the third round of the Masters 1000 event will be American wild card Jenson Brooksby, who defeated French lucky loser Arthur Cazaux in straight sets earlier in the day, 7-5, 6-1.

Brooksby won the pair's only previous meeting, and handily, too, prevailing 6-0, 6-3 in the second round of Indian Wells in 2022.