‘Well deserved!’ Aslan Karatsev wins the ATP Most Improved Player of the Year award
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Aslan Karatsev
Russian Aslan Karatsev started the year as No.112 in the ATP rankings and 12 months down the line, he finishes the year as World No.18. Meanwhile, he also achieved a career high ranking of No.15 and given his amazing run, he has been voted the Most Improved Player of the Year in the 2021 ATP Awards.
Other nominees in the same category were Carlos Alcaraz, Cameron Norrie and Casper Ruud– all of whom had amazing seasons. At the age of 28, Karatsev had a breakthrough year where he won two titles and finished runner-up once.
“Hi, I’m Aslan Karatsev. I’m really happy to win this award. It really means a lot to me and I’m really happy to get this. Thank you very much,” Karatsev said after winning the award.
Karatsev’s ‘dream’ 2021 season
Karatsev started the year with ATP Cup victory with team Russia, where he didn’t play any match. He then made his grand slam debut at the Australian Open and entered the main draw as a qualifier. After a couple of easy victories at Melbourne Park, he stunned Diego Schwartzman in the third round before notching up a five set victory over Felix Auger Aliassime. He then defeated Grigor Dimitrov to enter grand slam semifinal on debut where he lost to eventual champion Novak Djokovic.
In the middle-east leg, he lost to top seed Dominic Thiem in three sets at Doha and then went on to win his maiden tour title at Dubai- an ATP 500 event where he beat the likes of Dan Evans, Lorenzo Sonego, Jannik Sinner, Andrey Rublev and Lloyd Harris. On clay, he reached the final of the ATP 250 event in Belgrade where he stunned Djokovic in the semifinals.
Since then, Karatsev hasn’t been very consistent and had a string of early round exits. His next best result came at the San Diego Open where he reached the quarterfinals before winning the Kremlin Cup on home soil without dropping a set.
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Lakshya Chopra
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