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Paris - Russia's unseeded Karen Khachanov is into his first Masters final after beating Austrian sixth seed Dominic Thiem 6-4, 6-1 in their semi-final in Paris on Saturday.
In Sunday's final, the 22-year-old will meet either Roger Federer, looking for an historic 100th title of his career, or Novak Djokovic who has regained the world number one ranking.
"I am going to watch that match, it could be very interesting," said a smiling Khachanov in a courtside interview.
Going into the Paris Masters, Khachanov had won just three of his 19 matches against players in the Top 10 but it took him just 71 minutes to add the scalp of world number eight Thiem to those of John Isner (9) and Alexander Zverev (5) whom he beat earlier in the week.
The 1.98m Khachanov dominated from the baseline and attacked the Thiem service, breaking the Austrian in his final five service games of the match.
The Russian number two now has 15 match wins at this level this year, including a trip to the semi-finals of the Rogers Cup in Toronto.
Khachanov has also won two ATP World Tour titles in 2018 with triumphs in Marseille and at the Kremlin Cup.
"I am very happy with the way I have been playing," said the Russian who is assured of climbing at least to 12th in the ATP rankings when they are published on Monday.
