Australian Vukic was beaten to reach the Almaty Open final

Aleksandar Vukic’s hopes of making it to a second ATP final and celebrating another first triumph have failed in Kazakhstan.

The Sydneysider, who reached a semi-final on the Eastbourne turf this year and took part in a hard court final in Atlanta in 2023, was this time beaten in second place by the always tough Russian Karen Khachanov in the Almaty Open semi-final on Saturday.

The 28-year-old hard-hitting Australian, who had claimed one of the best victories of his career 24 hours earlier when he beat top seed Frances Tiafoe in the quarter-finals, this time found third seed Khachanov too difficult to handle after a good start, losing by 6 :7 (3:7), 6:3, 6:4.

Everything was looking good for world number 85 Vukic after a tight opening set as he took a 4-0 lead in the tiebreak and held on.

However, the match ended with two weak consecutive service games from Vukic at the end of the second set and the start of the third, each time seeing him broken to 15 points while Khachanov took the lead.

After trailing 5-1 in the decider there seemed to be no way back for Vukic, but he got to 5-4 before Khachanov served for the two-and-a-half hour triumph and a place in the final against Canada’s Gabriel Diallo.

Diallo achieved a double breakthrough by defeating Argentina’s Francisco Cerundolo 6-4, 6-2 in just 68 minutes in their semi-final at the indoor hard court event.

It not only brought the 23-year-old to his first ATP final, but also to the top 100 in the world for the first time.

“It’s very special, a pretty big milestone,” said the Montreal player.