By Chris Oddo | Monday January 22, 2018
South Korea’s Hyeon Chung pulled the stunner of the 2018 Australian Open by knocking off six-time champion Novak Djokovic, 7-6(4), 7-5, 7-6(3), on Monday night in Melbourne to book his first career quarterfinal.
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The 21-year-old becomes the first Korean—male or female—to reach the quarterfinals of a Grand Slam.
"Congratulations to Chung and his team. Amazing. Amazing performance," Djokovic said. "He was a better player on the court tonight. He deserved to win, no question about it. Whenever he was in trouble, he came up with some unbelievable shots, passing shots.
"Just from the back of the court, you know, he was like a wall.It's impressive. I wish him all the best."
Chung, who knocked off No.4-seeded Alexander Zverev in five sets in the third round, took full advantage of a Djokovic that lacked his trademark precision and built and early 4-0 lead in the first set thanks to a bevy of double-faults and some erratic, indecisive play from the Serb.
Djokovic would rally and make up the deficit only to be outplayed by Chung in the first set tiebreaker, but he seemed to be at least playing himself into form as the first set concluded.
But things got complicated in the second set. First the Serb had a trainer look at his elbow between sets. Then Djokovic began to labor physically when stretched out wide on defense. He quickly fell behind by a break and Chung did not hesitate to seize on any opportunities he was given by Djokovic. Soon he had claimed the second set and moved ahead by a break in set three, but a gritty Djokovic soldiered on, seemingly picking up momentum as he recovered the break and brought things to a tiebreaker.
"I had similar situations in the past where I found myself struggling a little bit with some injuries during the match, then I managed to win the match or lose, whatever," Djokovic said. "I felt the level of pain was, you know, not that high that I need to stop the match, even though it was obviously compromising my serve. That, of course, is a big shot, especially against Chung, who returns well, gets a lot of balls back...
"I wish I could have a little bit had more free points on the first serve, but I didn't. That's life. I have to move on."
But Chung played relaxed tennis in the breaker and put forth some of his finest shotmaking on a night where his shotmaking really was a revelation. He attacked Djokovic fearlessly and forced him into errors and eventually claimed the victory, closing affairs in three hours and 21 minutes to set up an improbable quarterfinal with American Tennys Sandgren.
Below is some of the initial Twitter reaction to this epic upset. More to follow....