[3] A week later, as a wildcard, Karatsev won his first ATP singles title at the 2021 Dubai Open, beating South African Lloyd Harris in the final.

Karatsev, who was unseeded and beat four seeded players to reach the final, joined Wayne Ferreira (1995) and Thomas Muster (1997) in this achievement.

His father Kazbek Karatsev is an ethnic Ossetian and former footballer, and his mother Svetlana Karatseva is a medical doctor.

[17] Karatsev fluently speaks Russian, Hebrew, and English, and holds dual Russian-Israeli citizenship.

In doubles, he was known for partnering good friend Evgeny Karlovskiy in most tournaments and the pair made the quarterfinals of the 2011 Junior French Open.

In the doubles event, he partnered Dmitry Tursunov and they reached the semifinals, losing to Dominic Inglot and Denis Istomin in a narrow deciding tiebreaker.

[21] According to his father, Karatsev at 19 was mentored by Dmitry Tursunov who traveled with him to Halle, Germany to train there for a couple of months but returned due to a lack of money to continue.

Karatsev made his Grand Slam debut at the Australian Open, after coming through qualifying by beating Brandon Nakashima, Max Purcell and Alexandre Müller.

He also upset 20th seed Félix Auger-Aliassime after dropping the first two sets and coming back to win in five to become the first qualifier to reach a Grand Slam quarterfinal since Bernard Tomic at Wimbledon 2011, and the first man to reach a quarterfinal in his Grand Slam debut since Alex Rădulescu in 1996 Wimbledon.

He entered the doubles draw with compatriot Andrey Rublev and reached the semifinals, where they defeated Jérémy Chardy and Fabrice Martin.

In the semifinal, Karatsev ended the 23-match winning streak of second seed Andrey Rublev at ATP 500 events to reach his first singles final.

[33] Karatsev notched two more top-ten wins, beating Schwartzman again in Madrid, and compatriot Daniil Medvedev in Rome.

However, he partnered with Elena Vesnina in mixed doubles, and on his debut advanced to the final, but the pair lost to Joe Salisbury and Desirae Krawczyk.

[34] At the Tokyo Olympics, he won the silver medal in mixed doubles with Elena Vesnina losing to compatriots Andrey Rublev and Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova in the final.

In his debut at a Masters-1000 level in doubles, Karatsev reached the quarterfinals at the National Bank Open in Toronto partnering with Dušan Lajović.

At the 2021 Kremlin Cup in Moscow, Karatsev defeated compatriot Karen Khachanov in the semifinals to reach his third final of the season and in his career.

26, Dan Evans, in the semifinals in a tight three-set match, to reach his fourth ATP singles final.

[43] Seeded 18th and last year semifinalist at the Australian Open, he lost in the third round to Adrian Mannarino in four sets.

[48] Seeded seventh and the defending champion at the Dubai Championships, he was defeated in the first round by Mackenzie McDonald.

[49] According to German TV ZDF, Karatsev, his coach Yahor Yatsyk and fellow tennis player Nikoloz Basilashvili were under investigation for possible involvement in match fixing.

[50] At the 2023 Mutua Madrid Open he reached as a qualifier the fourth round for the first time at this tournament and only for the second time overall at a Masters level, defeating Laslo Djere, 23rd seed Botic van de Zandschulp and 16th seed Alex de Minaur.

[52] At the 2023 Japan Open Tennis Championships he won his first round match with upset over previous year’s finalist sixth seed Frances Tiafoe.

[53] Next he reached the semifinals defeating again Zhang Zhizhen and fourth seed Alex de Minaur.

Following also a first round win at the 2024 Atlanta Open over Billy Harris, before losing to Frances Tiafoe this time, he returned to the top 100 on 5 August 2024.