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Pierre-Hugues Herbert has been made to toil hard at the 2020 Prague Challenger so far. He has survived one slugfest after another at the claycourt event on his way to reaching the semifinal stage.
The Frenchman struggled to hold serve in his first two matches as he was stretched to three sets in each of them. His quarterfinal against Tallon Griekspoor wasn;t much easier; after winning a topsy-turvy first set with several break exchanges, Herbert dropped the second and was broken at the start of the decider.
But just when it looked like the former World No. 36 was dead and buried, he came to life again and reeled off five consecutive games to win the match.
Herbert will now take on World No. 253 Aslan Karatsev of Russia for a place in the final of the Challenger event. The Russian journeyman has had quite the week at Prague, having punched way above his weight right from the beginning.
In the opening two rounds Karatsev beat Robin Haase and second seed Jiri Vesely, to set up a match with the in-form Ernests Gulbis in the Round of 16. But that didn't faze Karatsev, as he continued his giant-killing run and beat the Latvian convincingly to set up a quarterfinal clash with No. 7 seed Henri Laaksonen.
The Russian, whose career-high ranking was World No. 153 back in 2015, took out Laaksonen in straight sets too. He will now face yet another higher-ranked opponent in Pierre-Hugues Herbert, as he tries to reach his second Challenger final this season.
Herbert has had a modest 2020 tour campaign so far, with an overall W-L record of 14-8. Karatsev on the other hand has compiled a 30-11 W-L record on the back of a Challenger final run in January.
Pierre-Hugues Herbert vs Aslan Karatsev head-to-head
This will be the first ever meeting between Pierre-Hugues Herbert and Aslan Karatsev. The pair have never met before either on the ATP tour or the ATP Challenger circuit.
Pierre-Hugues Herbert vs Aslan Karatsev prediction
Pierre-Hugues Herbert has managed to reach the first semifinal of his 2020 season at Prague, where he is joined by tournament favorite Stan Wawrinka. However, those who have followed the event would know that the World No. 71 has been anything but solid.
In sharp contrast, Aslan Karatsev has been in scintillating form and hasn't dropped a single set in his four matches so far. It is also to be noted that the Russian is ambidextrous, i.e he is capable of playing both right-handed and left-handed.
Karatsev was on a 14-match winning streak at one point of the year, and has arguably been the most convincing player on show in Prague this week. The Russian journeyman can be expected to continue his giant-killing run when he meets Pierre-Hugues Herbert on Friday.
Prediction: Aslan Karatsev to win in three sets.
Match details
Tournament: Prague Open 2020
Venue: Prague, Czech Republic
Category: ATP Challenger 125k
Surface: Red clay
Prize money: €137,560
Match timing: 1.20 pm CEST (4.50 pm IST)
