To conclude his first round at the Masters 1000 in Rome, Aslan Karatsev pulled out all the stops. Opposing Mackenzie McDonald, the Russian performed a superb tweener (shot between the legs) on his match point to surprise the American, mounted on the net. Karatsev finally won in three sets (4-6, 6-3, 6-4) and will face a compatriot of McDonald in the second round: Tommy Paul, seeded number 14.
A surprise semi-finalist at the 2021 Australian Open, Karatsev fell back to 86th in the world after reaching 14th place in the ATP rankings in February 2022. But this season, he signed his first victory on the circuit in Rome on Thursday evening main. During the tournament in Brisbane in January, he injured his knee and left the court in a wheelchair. Returning during the Masters 1000 in Madrid, he was eliminated in the first round.