Former junior No. 1 Skatov looking forward to Machac test at Almaty Open

Ravi Ubha

Having taken part in the draw ceremony at the Almaty Open last Saturday, home wildcard Timofey Skatov learned of his opening opponent first hand.

It happened to be a seed and a surging one at that in Tomas Machac.

Machac beat four-time Grand Slam winner Carlos Alcaraz at the Shanghai Masters last week on the way to a semifinal showing. Among other highlights in 2024, Machac ousted Novak Djokovic in May in Geneva and won gold in mixed doubles in August at the Paris Olympics.

«If you take this year, he really improved a lot, in his tennis and also ranking wise,» said Skatov. «I expect it is going to be a tough match. He’s in good shape.»

Although Wednesday’s clash at the Almaty Arena marks a first singles meeting between the pair, they shared the court in juniors. The duo were on opposite sides of the net in junior doubles at the 2018 Australian Open and intermittently played together a year earlier, even bagging a junior doubles title in Moldova.

«He’s a really nice guy,» said the 192nd-ranked Skatov.

Skatov enjoyed the more noteworthy junior career by climbing to No. 1 and is now trying to make the sort of improvements in his game that Machac has.

Lessons have been learned by the 23-year-old along the way.

«Probably when I was No. 1 when I was 17, I was thinking that it’s going to be a little bit easier and that everything was going to come easy,» said Skatov. «Maybe this was one of the mistakes that I did at the beginning and no one could really guide me well through that.

«But it’s still a fun journey. There is still much more things to work on. That’s why it’s still interesting. I feel pumped for the future.»

Three of Skatov’s four junior titles came on hard courts. He grew up practising indoors and hitting flat.

As he made his way in the pro ranks, Skatov honed his skills in Spain, clay his «main surface.» All five of his professional titles, including two Challengers, indeed have come on clay.

It was time well spent for Skatov as he developed his baseline game and worked on conditioning but last year he opted to switch to Sweden and Stockholm’s Good to Great Academy.

Former No. 295 Johan Ortegren coaches Skatov, with one of the academy’s founders, former world No. 2 Magnus Norman, occasionally offering guidance.

«Now we are working more to play on hard court and improving the game inside the court and the serve as well,» said Skatov. «I feel much more safe inside the court. For example, we played doubles with (Alexander) Sasha Shevchenko and it feels like a big, big difference,» added Skatov, referring to a 6-1 7-6 (5) win Monday against Evan King and Reese Stalder amid Almaty’s high altitude.

Skatov bids for a fourth Top 30 singles scalp this year against Machac — who turned 24 on Sunday — and first on a hard court.

«I’ve been here already since Friday so I’ve spent quite a lot of time here practising to get used to the conditions,» said Skatov, whose maiden Top 100 win came as a wildcard in Kazakhstan in 2021. «I feel quite comfortable here. So I will try to do my best and show good things, to try to get the win in front of my home crowd.»

German teen back in action, Tabilo debuts

If Skatov made waves as a 17-year-old, the same can be said of Justin Engel.

The 17-year-old German on Monday became the youngest player to win an ATP match since Alcaraz. Now he aims for a first Top 100 win against fourth seed Francisco Cerundolo.

Second-seed Alejandro Tabilo later battles Engel’s fellow German Maximilian Marterer on centre court while the night session sees Kazakhstan’s Alexander Shevchenko play a Grand Slam semifinalist, Aslan Karatsev. 

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