In the sport that he was encouraged by his parents to play to improve his eyesight, the bespectacled 21-year-old Chung Hyeon became the first player from South Korea to reach the quarter-finals of a grand-slam tournament by defeating his idol, Novak Djokovic, in straight sets.
This Australian Open has thrown up some interesting tales — wait till you hear the one about Chung’s next opponent, the 26-year-old world No 97 who has reached the last eight after never before winning a main-draw match at a major — but this shock victory against the six-times champion is probably the best of them all. So far.
Chung, ranked No 58 in the world, captivated the 15,000-capacity crowd inside the Rod Laver Arena yesterday with a thrilling display of belief, determination and grit. Djokovic was not at his best, hindered again by the troublesome right elbow that has bothered him for so long, but it still took something special to close out a 7-6 (7-4), 7-5, 7-6 (7-3) win after three hours and 21 minutes.
Afterwards, Chung signed the television camera lens with the words: “Are you all watching?” Many gathered around television sets in his home country were, and will have been inspired by this most significant tennis moment involving one of their own. “Today is a victory for my country,” he said. “I think tennis is coming up after this tonight.”
Djokovic will have felt like he was playing a mirror of himself. Chung displayed many of the traits we have seen in the Serbian’s game through the years: outlasting his opponent in points, comfortably absorbing power and moving fast to return the ball with depth from metres behind the baseline.
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Chung was already showing signs of a promising future in tennis at the age of 11 when he saw Djokovic on television for the first time, winning the first of his 12 grand-slam titles at Melbourne Park in 2008. Four years earlier, Chung had taken a more serious interest in playing, after one doctor told his parents that focusing on colours such as the fluorescent yellow on a tennis ball would help his poor eyesight. Wearing prescription sports glasses while playing matches, he quickly developed a reputation as one to watch.
Winning the doubles at the 2014 Asian Games was a key triumph. Not only did it earn Chung a medal, but it reduced his military service in South Korea from two years to a four-week period of basic training, which he fulfilled at the end of the 2015 season.
Chung was publicised as part of the ATP’s “Next Gen” group of players last year and he won the inaugural under-21 finals in Milan two months ago, giving him confidence that contributed towards the biggest win of his career.
“It’s a dream come true,” Chung said. “I’m really just happy. When I was young I was just trying to copy Novak because he is my idol.”
Djokovic had made an ominous start, serving four double faults in his first two service games as he quickly found himself 4-0 down. Chung could not serve out the first set at 5-4 but he did close out the tie-break, after which Djokovic received treatment on his elbow from the medics.
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Chung again earned a decent lead at 4-1 in the second set. Djokovic battled hard to break back but, while serving to stay in the set at 5-6, a tame forehand into the net summed up his woes and handed a two-set lead to his opponent.
Amid the tension of a third-set tie-break, Chung hit an incredible forehand pass for 5-3. The match ended on a 57th unforced error by Djokovic, whose sombre report afterwards raised concerns that it may be some time before we see him back on the court.
“Unfortunately, it’s not great,” Djokovic said. “At the end of the first set it started hurting more, so I had to deal with it until the end of the match.
“I have to reassess everything with my team — medical team, coaches and everybody — scan it and see what the situation is like. In the last couple of weeks I played a lot of tennis. Let’s see what’s happening inside.”
In one of the most unlikely men’s singles quarter-final matches in recent history, Chung now faces Tennys Sandgren, from Tennessee, who was not named after the sport but in honour of his Swedish great-grandfather.
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Sandgren had never shown any signs before that he was capable of such a deep run at a major, hence the shock even he felt after defeating Dominic Thiem, the No 5 seed from Austria, 6-2, 4-6, 7-6 (7-4), 6-7 (7-9), 6-3.
Chung profile
Australian Open quarter-final
French Open third round
Wimbledon first round
US Open second round
“I actually had a little bit at the end of the match [while] doing the post-match interview [where I was] thinking this would be one of those moments where you wake up,” Sandgren said. “Obviously the first three matches were more than I expected. This one was about as hard-fought as I’ve ever had a match before. My biggest match as well, [which is] pretty neat. I definitely had a real pinch-me moment: ‘Wow, this is hopefully real. If I wake up now, I’m going to be real upset.’ ”
Roger Federer, the defending champion, set up a quarter-final with Tomas Berdych, the No 19 seed from the Czech Republic, by defeating Hungary’s Marton Fucsovics 6-4, 7-6 (7-3), 6-2.
