Breakthrough seasons are generally reserved for the next generation of potential stars and not for a player whose cumulative ATP Tour wins can be counted on three fingers by the time he reaches his mid-20s. He spent the first eight years of his professional career grafting away in the lower reaches of the game from the outside and never looked like cracking the top 100, let alone the top 50.

When the 2021 season began, Aslan Karatsev found himself in exactly that situation. After six weeks and three tournaments, the 27-year-old Russian has been a Grand Slam semi-finalist and an ATP 500 winner.

The most shocking part of his run to the Dubai Duty-Free Tennis Championships title wasn't surprising at all. Karatsev simply repeated his form from the Australian Open, which enabled him to be the first male player in the Open era to reach a major semi-final on his debut. That was sufficient for the ATP title.

Lloyd Harris, the Dubai finalist, was no match for Karatsev, who won 6-3, 6-2 in just 75 minutes.

Karatsev thrives on his self-assurance. He had some major wins, which gave him confidence. Because of this confidence, we got to see these results from him. He has taken it to a new stage this year. It's quite remarkable what he's accomplished for a player who only won three tour-level matches between 2013 and 2020 and only played 13. His only defeats in 2021 came at the Australian Open to world No. 1 Novak Djokovic and the Qatar Open to world No. 4 Dominic Thiem. Karatsev went on to win the doubles title in Doha.

Karatsev had to brave amidst treacherous waters to reach the final after being given a wildcard by Dubai organizers and being an unseeded player. But as the competition became more difficult, he simply upped his game. Dan Evans, the 12th seed from the United Kingdom, Lorenzo Sonego, the 17th seed from Italy, and Jannik Sinner, one of the tour's most promising young players, all tried but failed to stop the Karatsev train.

The biggest declaration came in the semi-finals when he faced second seed and world No. 8 Andrey Rublev. His fellow Russian couldn't keep up with Karatsev, who dominated the third set to advance to the final. After eliminating top seed Dominic Thiem, former world No. 4, Kei Nishikori, and third seed Denis Shapovalov on his way to his first ATP 500 final. World No. 81 Harris, who came through qualifying, posed a major challenge.

Karatsev, broke a jittery Harris to take a 2-0 lead in the first set and closed it out after serving the next seven games. The second set got off to a similar start, with Harris losing serve in the first game. The final nail in the coffin was a second break that gave Karatsev a 5-2 lead, and the Russian won with a love service hold. In 2021, he has a 12-2 win-loss record. Earlier, he had a career record of 3-10.

According to Karatsev, since the beginning of the year, he has been extremely pleased with his success. He had demonstrated a high level of play, after the Australian Open and kept going and practicing hard. This week, he performed at a high stage and is looking forward to seeing himself in Miami.