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Karen Khachanov made one of the best starts to 2023 of any player on the ATP Tour. But injury brought his season to a screeching halt and on Wednesday he confirmed that he is still not 100 per cent.
The 27-year-old played competitively for the first time since Roland Garros at this week’s Western & Southern Open, where he reached the second round of the doubles event with Robin Haase. Khachanov withdrew from singles.
“It feels great [to be back]. I’m really happy to say I was missing it. I was missing the tour, missing coming to the tournaments, competing. But unfortunately, I still couldn’t play the singles this week,” Khachanov told ATPTour.com. “I’m still not ready, not really 100 per cent. I tried to play doubles, which was nice. I felt again a little bit of the atmosphere, even starting with doubles, and I’m just hoping really to keep improving day by day and to come back to the full competition soon.”
Khachanov was dealing with one injury since the Australian Open. During that time, he reached the semi-finals in Melbourne and Miami, and later reached the quarter-finals at Roland Garros.
“I was playing during these four or five months with this pain, with painkillers. That injury caused the other one. I had a fracture in my sacrum bone under the lower back and I had a fracture in the pubic bone. This is initially from the groin pain,” Khachanov said. “I was playing with the pain and I just made it worse and now the recovery process is way tougher and way longer than it could have been.
“The sacrum bone, I felt actually after the [fourth-round Roland Garros] match with [Lorenzo] Sonego. Basically the quarter-final match with Novak [Djokovic], I was playing with two pains. I don’t know how I did it, but I played really well, actually. People with whom I shared this info, they’re still surprised because I didn’t show any sign of pain.”
For seven weeks, Khachanov did not touch a racquet and for a period of time it was painful to walk. But on a positive note, his second child was born one month ago.
“That was very happy. At the end of the day, this time was tough in a way from the injury but at the same time happy time with my family, with my kids,” Khachanov said. “Now I have two sons and I was happy that I had family by my side. I was resting, playing with my older son and doing home routines. Totally different.
“Then after I started step by step doing [work] in the gym. Then I started to do pool exercise, then slowly I was running and then on court and now here I am in Cincinnati.”
In the first five months of the season, Khachanov appeared poised for a charge to the Nitto ATP Finals. Now he is just hoping to be able to play singles again soon.
“It’s tough but you have to deal with it. What can I do? Sometimes things are out of my control and if I would be thinking more about it, I would just get more disappointed and more sad,” Khachanov said. “So that’s why I think it’s better not to think about it and for sure, for me, the goal is to be healthy and as soon as I can be healthy and at my 100 per cent. I’ll try to keep the form. I hope I can come back and be in the same position where I left.”
Khachanov will head to New York and continue working hard with the hope of competing at the season’s final major, where he made the last four one year ago.
“It’s still under question and I cannot currently confirm either way,” Khachanov said. “I will take it day by day now and really see where I am when the US Open is going to start and then make a decision.”
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