US Open: Karatsev crushes 83 winners en route to third round

Russia’s Aslan Karatsev overpowered Spaniard Roberto Carballes Baena 6-2, 4-6, 6-3, 7-6 (4) to advance to the third round of the US Open at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in New York on Wednesday.

With Carballes Baena having knocked out No 4 seed Holger Rune in the previous round, this couldn’t have been a match up of more contrasting style. Karatsev is known as a winner-hitting machine, while Carballes Baena is a baseline grinder with some of the best endurance on Tour. Turns out, that’s exactly how this clash unfolded, with the Spaniard making his opponent do all the hitting.

How are these for statistics: Karatsev hit 83 winner and 54 unforced errors, while Carballes Baena struck only 10 winners and eight unforced errors.

In the end, the Russian simply had too much power for his opponent, winning the fourth set in a tiebreak to set a third round encounter against the winner of the match between Austrian Dominic Thiem and American Ben Shelton next. Karatsev won against Jiri Lehecka (6-3, 6-3, 6-3) in the previous round of the Flushing Meadows tournament.

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Tennis Majors

New York (Grand Slam), other second-round results (USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center, hard, USD 44.700.000, most recent results first):

• Daniil Medvedev vs. Christopher O’Connell
• Carlos Alcaraz vs. Lloyd Harris
• Gael Monfils vs. Andrey Rublev
• Tomas Martin Etcheverry vs. Stan Wawrinka
• Andy Murray vs. Grigor Dimitrov
• Michael Mmoh vs. John Isner
• Lorenzo Sonego vs. Jannik Sinner
• Alexander Zverev vs. Daniel Altmaier
• Juan Pablo Varillas vs. Taylor Fritz
• Matteo Berrettini vs. Arthur Rinderknech
• Jack Draper vs. Hubert Hurkacz
• Yibing Wu vs. Alex De Minaur
• Nicolas Jarry vs. Alex Michelsen
• Felipe Meligeni Alves vs. Sebastian Baez
• Yu Hsiou Hsu vs. Cameron Norrie
• Arthur Fils vs. Matteo Arnaldi
• Botic van de Zandschulp vs. Daniel Evans
• Sebastian Ofner vs. Frances Tiafoe
• Titouan Droguet vs. Jakub Mensik
• Casper Ruud vs. Zhizhen Zhang
• Juan Manuel Cerundolo vs. Alejandro Davidovich Fokina
• Tommy Paul vs. Roman Safiullin
• Rinky Hijikata vs. Marton Fucsovics
• Dominic Thiem vs. Ben Shelton: wednesday
• Adrian Mannarino vs. Fabian Marozsan: wednesday
• Jiri Vesely vs. Francisco Cerundolo: wednesday
• Novak Djokovic (2) beat Bernabe Zapata Miralles: 6-4, 6-1, 6-1
• Benjamin Bonzi vs. Christopher Eubanks: wednesday
• Laslo Djere (32) beat Hugo Gaston (Q): 6-1, 6-2, 6-3
• Borna Gojo (Q) beat Mackenzie McDonald: 6-3, 6-4, 6-4
• Dominic Stricker (Q) beat Stefanos Tsitsipas (7): 7-5, 6-7 (2), 6-7 (5), 7-6 (6), 6-3