Aslan Karatsev’s unprecedented debut grand slam run has ended at the hands of Novak Djokovic, the Australian Open-winning machine advancing to his ninth final at Melbourne Park, having won each of his previous eight tournament deciders.
The Serbian beat Karatsev in straight sets 6-3, 6-4, 6-2 at Rod Laver Arena on Thursday night to set up a clash with either Greece’s Stefanos Tsitsipas or Russia’s Daniil Medvedev in Sunday evening’s final.
Novak Djokovic proved too good for Aslan Karatsev in their semi-final on Thursday night.Credit:Getty Images
Karatsev, the 27-year-old Russian qualifier in his first grand slam, will go from world No.114 into the top 50 because of his breakout effort, which included wins over No.8 seed Diego Schwartzman, No.18 seed Grigor Dimitrov and No.20 seed Felix Auger Aliassime.
In the two latter matches Karatsev came from two sets to love and one set to love down to win.
