The pair have met twice before – Karen Khachanov winning in 2019 at the Cincinatti Open 6-7, 7-6, 6-2, before Nick Kyrgios got the better of him at the 2020 Australian Open in a tense affair that involved four tiebreakers; 6-2, 7-6, 6-7, 6-7, 7-6.
Late in 2020, at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, Kyrgios took aim at tennis great Mats Wilander for labelling Murray “selfish” over his decision to accept a Roland-Garros wildcard.
Khachanov, at that time ranked 16th in the world, asked Kyrgios to “show some respect”, but the Canberra firebrand didn’t take too kindly to the request.
The back-and-forth continued for a while, before Kyrgios branded Khachanov a ‘pelican’, and there’s no coming back from that.