'Roger Federer does unbelievable things on court,' said Karatsev

For the first time in a career, Aslan Karatsev is ranked inside the top-30 following great success in Dubai last week and his first ATP title at 27.

Aslan made the season restart last August ranked outside the top-250 and made quick progress with three consecutive Challenger finals and two titles. In January, Aslan qualified for his first Major tournament and made a name for himself after reaching the semi-final, writing history before losing to Novak Djokovic.

Suffering defeat to Dominic Thiem in Doha, Aslan went all the way to claim the first ATP title in Dubai last week, beating Lloyd Harris to add 500 points to his tally and crack the top-30 for the first time. Speaking about his idols, Karatsev said that he always liked to watch Pete Sampras, Andre Agassi and Roger Federer. Praising the Swiss, the Russian said that Roger started winning when he was seven and how incredible it has been to watch him for all those years.

"I always liked to watch Roger Federer, Pete Sampras, and Andre Agassi. At the time when I was growing up, there were fantastic matches between Agassi and Sampras. And Roger, when I was seven, he had already started winning. It's unbelievable to watch what he does on the court. This title means a lot. It was a long journey from 18 years old when I stopped playing the juniors and turned pro.

It took me ten years or more. It's a long journey, and I put in a lot of hard work. There were many ups and downs. I also was injured during this time, so I'm thrilled that I recovered and was ready to compete again on that level," Aslan Karatsev said.