Hindustan Times (Amritsar)

Chung shows his hero Djokovic the door

Korean beats sixtime champion Serb in three sets

- Associated Press sportsdesk@hindustant­imes.com

MELBOURNE: Even by Australian Open standards, back-to-back shockers have resulted in a most unexpected quarter-final.

The season-opening Grand Slam has a tendency to be unpredicta­ble, but losing six-time champion Novak Djokovic and fifth-ranked Dominic Thiem within a few hours on Monday leaves H ye on Chung and Tennys Sand gr en playing for a spot in the semi-finals.

The 58 th-ranked Chung relentless­ly attacked a clearly injured Djokovic in a 7-6 (4), 7-5, 7-6 (3) fourth-round victory, becoming the first South Korean to reach the last eight at a Grand Slam.

Then there’s Tennys. The 26-year-old from Tennessee had never won a Grand Slam match or beaten a top-10 player until last week. The 97th-ranked Sand gren beat Thiem 6-2, 4-6, 7-6 (4), 6-7 (7), 6-3, following up on his earlier victory over 2014 Australian Open champion Stan W aw rink a.

He’ s only the second man in 20 years to reach the quarterfin­als in his debut at Melbourne Park.

The bespectacl­ed Chung ripped 47 winners, including a forehand on the slide and at full stretch that put him within two points of victory, and credited Djokovic as his inspiratio­n.

“When I’ m young, I’ m just trying to copy Novak because he’s my idol,” Chung said. “I can’t believe this tonight. Dreams come true tonight.”

Djokovic was playing his first competitiv­e tennis since Wimbledon last July, and had to re model his service swing to take some load off his injured right elbow.

He winced and grimaced throughout the match, particular­ly when stretching for backhands, and needed a medical timeout in the second set for massage on his injured elbow.

The 12-time major champion said he would need to re assess the injury, but didn’ t want his pa into detract from Chung’s win.

“Amazing. Amazing performanc­e ,” said Djokovic, whowas seeded 14th after his ranking slid in 2017 while he was off the tour. “Whenever he was in trouble, he came up with some unbelievab­le shots. Just from the back of the court, you know, he was like a wall.”

Chung was coming off a win over fourth-seeded Alexander Zverev, and is on a roll.

Djokovic wasn’t even sure until the last minute that he would be able to play at Melbourne Park, but was fit enough to beat Donald Young, Gael Monfils and No .21 Albert Ramos-Vino las. Chung was a different propositio­n.

“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,” Djokovic said. “I felt the level of pain was not that high that I need to stop the match, even though it was obviously compromisi­ng my serve. “That’ s life. I have to move on .” The 26-year-old Sandgren missed a match point in the fourth set but held on to beat Thiem.

“I don’t know if this is a dream or not - all you guys are here, so maybe it’ s not ,” Sand gr en said in an on-court TV interview after his win. “I’m not in my underwear, so maybe it’ s not a dream .”

He described it later has “a real ‘pinch-me’ moment.”

Sand gr en converted half of his eight break-point chances, and fended off 10 of the 12 he faced against T hi em. He hit 63 winners against 38 unforced errors.

“Trying to keep riding the wave,” said Sandgren, who was given his first name in memory of his great-grandfathe­r.

Defending champion Roger Fe der er, meanwhile, had no real difficulti­es in reaching the Australian Open quarter finals for the 14th time.

He beat Marton Fucsovics 6-4, 7-6 (3), 6-2 and will next renew a lengthy rivalry against Tomas Berdych, who had a 6-1, 6-4, 6-4 win over Fabio Fognini.

The win over Fucsovics was Federer’s first day match of the 2018 tournament, and he joked about needing sunglasses and a towel for the beach but said really the only change was to set the alarm for a different time.

› I was just thinking I’m two love up in sets so if I lose (the third) I still have two more sets. I can play two more hours. I’m younger than Novak!

CHUNG HYEON, Korean tennis player

 ?? GETTY IMAGES ?? Hyeon Chung became the first Korean to reach a Grand Slam quarterfin­al.
GETTY IMAGES Hyeon Chung became the first Korean to reach a Grand Slam quarterfin­al.
 ?? GETTY IMAGES ?? Novak Djokovic, back after a sixmonth injury layoff, was struggling throughout the match.
GETTY IMAGES Novak Djokovic, back after a sixmonth injury layoff, was struggling throughout the match.

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