Chess fan Karen Khachanov eyes checkmate against Novak Djokovic

Karen Khachanov is keeping all his good chess moves close to his chest ahead of his quarter-final clash against Novak Djokovic at the French Open.

The pair will meet for the 10th time in the careers and 22-time Grand Slam winner Djokovic dominates the head-to-head battle as he is 8-1 with Khachanov’s only victory coming in 2018.

Naturally the 11th seed knows he needs to mix things up and come up with a better strategy if he finally wants to get the better of the Serbian again.

Khachanov, a big chess fan, was asked about his plans for the match and replied: “I’m not going to tell you my chess moves, no? Because you’re going to tell him straightaway (smiling).

“Yeah, against him, you need to play really good chess, I mean, I guess to beat him. But definitely I will prepare. You know, it’s one day between, like always, to analyse with your team what you can do better, let’s say. We will watch some points, some matches from him, and then make a plan basically.

“But of course, you know, he’s one of the toughest tasks, toughest opponents, and, you know, you cannot count him out. So at the same time I have ultimate respect, but I’m focused, you know, I’m pumped to do well, and let’s see if I can make it or not this time.”

The 27-year-old is looking to reach the semi-final of a Grand Slam for the third consecutive time as he also made the last four at this year’s Australian Open and last year’s US Open.

“To be honest, I said it last year, I think after reaching the first semi-finals in US Open, you know, a lot of things changed in my head also. And in my mental part, you know, I saw that I could do this step forward, you know. After playing quarterfinals, I could do this step forward to make semi-finals first time,” he revealed.

“And, you know, sometimes you’re confident, sometimes you believe in yourself, and you know how to do it, but you still want to see the result to approve, you know, that you can make it.

“So I think saying this helped me a lot to kind of do these next steps what it takes from me to try to play more consistent, better tennis during longer period of time. I think, yeah, this self-belief and confidence, they just stay there no matter, not matter depending on the results, you know.

“So it’s really this step forward that I felt after US Open.”

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