Zverev’s exact words, after his 6-2, 7-5, 6-1 win over Botic van de Zandschulp: “We call him [Khachanov] ‘The Professor’, actually, because he knows everything about tennis, and he knows every single string tension, knows what everybody does, so that’s quite fun.”
In our newsroom, one man read that quote three times.
There. There it is. For ten years people told me I was a pain about string tension. That it changes nothing, that it’s all in my head. And now a US Open semi-finalist gets called The Professor for exactly that. The level in club league has gone way up, people don’t realise.
Khachanov is 30. He reaches a Grand Slam semi-final for the first time since the 2023 Australian Open. A former world number 8, he has slipped to 50th and was unseeded at a Major for the first time since 2018. He went through when Alexander Blockx, 21, retired while trailing 6-2, 7-5, 3-2.
On his next opponent, Khachanov said: “He’s been in the top five for so many years. This year he did also step forward. He won his first Grand Slam, played the final in Wimbledon, as well. He’s coming up really in hot form.”
The other detail that caught our analyst’s eye: Zverev has dropped 80 games so far, the second-highest total for a top seed reaching the semi-finals, behind Rafael Nadal’s 85 in 2018. Zverev explained the mechanics himself: “In other tournaments I would be out in the first round, but here I can fight back and play best of five sets, play four-and-a-half hours.”
Best of five, that’s the real story. In club league (interclubs, Belgium’s weekend team league), you lose your first set on a Sunday morning and you’re out on the car park at 11.20 with your bag and your sandwich. He gets four and a half hours to sort himself out. Two practice sessions away, mind you.
So the semi-final pits Zverev, this year’s Roland-Garros champion and Wimbledon runner-up, against Khachanov.
It’s true, we checked: BBC Sport.
