By Chris Oddo | Monday January 22, 2018
He started the week as an American journeyman known mostly for his name, and enters the quarterfinals as the story of the 2018 Australian Open known mostly for his tennis.
Tennys Sandgren, the man who knocked Stan Wawrinka out of the draw in the second round, pulled another stunner on a manic Monday in Melbourne, Knocking off No.5-seeded Dominic Thiem, 6-2, 4-6, 7-6(4), 6-7(7), 6-3.
Sandgren is making the most of his Australian Open debut, and he’s playing just his third Grand Slam main draw of his career.
The 26-year-old entered this year’s draw with 2 ATP wins to his name. He becomes just the second man in the last 20 years to reach the quarterfinals on his Australian Open debut.
Thiem fought valiantly, saving a match point with an epic backhand winner in the fourth-set tiebreaker, but Sandgren stayed the course and rallied to finish off the Austrian in set five.
Theim has yet to reach a Grand Slam quarterfinal on a hard court and he drops to 0-5 in fourth-round matches in hard court Slams.
Sandgren advances to face either Novak Djokovic or Hyeon Chung. The South Korean currently leads Djokovic by two sets and a break on Rod Laver Arena.