Khachanov Earns 200th Match Win In Montreal

Karen Khachanov earned every bit of his 200th tour-level singles win on Monday at the National Bank Open Presented by Rogers. After splitting two sets of razor-thin margins against Francisco Cerundolo, the 26-year-old powered through the decider in a 7-6(4), 5-7, 6-3 victory.

The World No. 28 improved to 200-154 with the result, hitting 22 winners and five aces in the two-hour, 43-minute contest. Khachanov was six of nine on break chances and claimed the only break of the final set in its fourth game. After moving ahead 3-1, he dropped just two points on serve the rest of the way, closing out the win with a love hold.

A two-time semi-finalst at the ATP Masters 1000 event (2018-19), Khachanov earned his first ATP Tour win in St. Petersburg in 2013 and rose to a career-high of No. 8 in the Pepperstone ATP Rankings in 2019. He won three of his four tour-level titles in 2018, including his trophy triumph at the Rolex Paris Masters.

His best result of 2022 is a run to the Adelaide-1 final in January. Now at 26-18 on the season, he will next meet Marin Cilic or Borna Coric in the second round.

In one of the marquee opening-round matchups in Montreal, Alex de Minaur was four points away from victory against home favourite Denis Shapovalov when heavy rain stopped play for the day. The Australian took the opening set 7-5 with a break in its final game, then clawed back an early break in the second to force a tie-break, which is knotted at 3-3.

Atlanta champion De Minaur is seeking his first win in his third appearance at the Canadian event, as well as his first win against a Canadian opponent (0-7). Shapovalov, who was firing up his home crowd throughout the match, is seeking to improve upon a 1-8 run in his last nine matches since defeating Rafael Nadal in Rome.