Four straight losses, and no sign of the brakes
Karen Khachanov cannot buy a win right now. The former world No. 8 went out of another tournament through the back door, this time in the first round of the Cincinnati Masters 1000, beaten by Aleksandar Kovacevic 5-7, 6-3, 7-6.
It was not a hammering. In some ways that is worse. Khachanov had chances, could feel the match turning his way, then folded in the third-set tie-break. The kind of loss that hurts the ranking and the head in equal measure.
With the US Open days away, the timing could hardly be uglier.
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A match that was there for the taking
Against Kovacevic, Khachanov actually started well. He took the opening set 7-5 and looked to have finally grabbed hold of a match that mattered. Nothing is simple when confidence has gone missing, though.
The American fought back, took the second 6-3, and dragged the thing into a tense decider. Khachanov built a career on power, serve and the ability to make matches physical. This time the extra gear never showed up.
The tie-break settled it. Kovacevic took his chance. Khachanov let another one slip.
Since Wimbledon, nothing
The run is starting to bite. Since his third-round exit at Wimbledon, a five-set war lost to Flavio Cobolli, the Russian has not won a match on tour.
Los Cabos? First round, beaten by Bernard Tomic, 6-2, 6-4. Montreal? Gone at the first hurdle. Cincinnati? Another immediate exit.
Four defeats on the spin, precisely when he needed hard-court rhythm. He now heads into the final stretch before New York short on wins and shorter on belief.
The ranking is doing the punishing now
The exit carries a direct cost: Khachanov drops out of the top 40. He was world No. 26 at the end of July. He sits at No. 46 in the live rankings.
The fall is steep, and not only in places lost. It sends him back to territory he had not seen since March 2018, when he was No. 41 and climbing, months before a Masters 1000 title in Paris-Bercy and a season finish knocking on the door of the top 10.
The direction has flipped. He is not climbing anymore.
Too good to be ordinary, too uneven to trust
That is the Khachanov contradiction. Everyone knows the ceiling: heavy groundstrokes, big forehand, serve, physique, experience on the biggest courts. He is not a player short of weapons.
Over the past few weeks, though, nothing has clicked. Matches slip away. Loose patches cost him sets. Opponents smell the opening, and the Russian no longer imposes the authority that once made him such a nasty draw at the majors.
He is not outclassed. He is stuck in that dangerous zone where tight losses feed the next ones.
The US Open arrives with plenty of questions
The American swing was supposed to be a launchpad. It has looked more like a warning light. Cincinnati could have been the turn, one win to rebuild some feel. Instead he leaves with another setback and a ranking still sliding.
In New York he needs a quick fix. Depending on the draw, he could face danger far earlier than the seeding of a few weeks ago would have allowed.
The question is no longer how far he can go.
It is how he stops the bleeding.
A brutal reminder of how the tour works
Khachanov has been to the top. World No. 8, a Masters 1000 title, wins over the best when his game fires. The tour does not wait around, though. A bad run, a handful of key points lost, a wobbling head, and everything tightens fast.
In Cincinnati, Kovacevic added another layer to the problem.
Khachanov needs an answer.
Soon.
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