Novak Djokovic defeated in Australia by Next Gen sensation Hyeon Chung
Hyeon Chung is living up to the hype at the Australian Open, winning his biggest victory yet over his idol Novak Djokovic in straight sets.
Novak Djokovic has won the Australian Open a record six times, the first time ten years ago when he was 20. It was his first Grand Slam title. On Monday, he ran into a 21-year-old version of himself, the Korean powerhouse Hyeon Chung, who beat him in three intense sets, 7-6(4), 7-5, 7-6(3).
It marked the first time that the 6-time AO winner has been defeated in straight sets at his most successful grand slam in 11 years. (The last person to do so was Roger Federer in 2007.) And what a match it was between the Serb and Chung.
Take, as a small sample, this amazing 33-shot rally as an indication of the kind of high-quality tennis seen between the two hard hitters.
Djokovic, to his credit, only had admiration for his young opponent.
“He deserved to win, no question about it,” Djokovic said after the match. “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.”
“I’m just trying to copy Novak because he is my idol,” said Chung in his on-court interview. “Dreams [came] true tonight.”
Hyeon Chung is the real thing. As he showed in his match against the other Next Gen sensation that everyone’s been talking about — Alexander Zverev — he outran all the points down and has played the entire Down Under slam like a freight train.
One of the few players to challenge world No. 1 Rafael Nadal last year on clay, Chung, the world No. 58, gave quite a fight in his match with the Spaniard at last year’s Barcelona tournament, losing a tight first set tie-break. If he and the 16-time slam champ meet up at the Melbourne slam, Nadal will be remembering that match and, if anything, the Korean talent has only improved since then.
With the victory in the fourth round, Chung becomes the first South Korean — man or woman — to reach the quarterfinals at a grand slam. It’s a great boon for the country hosting the Winter Olympics next month.
“Yeah today victory for my country, I think tennis coming up after this tonight,” he later said in his press conference.
Novak Djokovic goes back to the drawing board after this. The Serb took a medical timeout during the match and was clearly feeling pain from a troublesome elbow. Hoping to achieve a similar comeback to Roger Federer’s last year after he returned from six months of injury rehab, the picture for the 30 year-old Serb is quite different now.
“It’s not great,” Djokovic said afterward. “It’s frustrating, of course, when you have that much time and you don’t heal properly. But it is what it is. I have to reassess everything with my team, medical team, coaches and everybody, scan it, see what the situation is like. Last couple weeks I played a lot of tennis. Let’s see what’s happening inside.”
The truth is, the former world No. 1 only started practicing just about a month ago, perhaps less preparation than 19-time slam Federer before he entered last year’s AO. He’s also a very different player than the Swiss legend, relying more on his aggression and playing a harder type of game that requires optimum fitness and takes a greater physical toll on the body. Getting back to the shape he was a year ago will take longer. Still, Djokovic showed some positive signs throughout the tournament, winning his first three rounds and demonstrating an improved form. He’ll have to take it one tournament at a time on his tennis comeback road.
Hyeon Chung now faces the lone American left, Tennys Sandgren — another Cinderella story from the tourney — in his first grand slam quarterfinal.
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The Australian Open sure has seen its fill of surprise winners last week. Let’s see if week two proves to be just as exciting, or if we’ll see Grandfather Federer wreak vengeance on all these young upstarts and show them how they won grand slam tournaments “back in his day” with slam No. 20.