Tennys Sandgren is the last American man standing at the Australian Open
Tennys Sandgren, ranked No. 97, continues his extraordinary run with another win over a Top 10 player, defeating No. 5 Dominic Thiem in five sets, 6-2, 4-6, 7-6(4), 6-7(7), 6-3 to reach his first grand slam quarterfinal.
Tennys Sandgren has never progressed past the first round of a grand slam, which he did at last year’s French Open and U.S. Open. He was the American man no one expected to make this far into the Australian Open. Compatriots John Isner, Jack Sock and Frances Tiafoe went out in the first round and Sam Querry was gone in round two in an American bloodbath that didn’t spare the women either, including Venus Williams, CoCo Vandeweghe and Sloane Stephens, who all went out on day one. But now that we’re into Week Two, there’s Sandgren on the men’s side and US Open finalist Madison Keys left for the last eight.
After he made the fourth round, he became the only American man left in the draw.
“To be the last American left in the round of 16, I would like it if there were more,” said Sandgren at the time. “We have a lot of really good players coming up. I’m sure we’re going to see multiple men in [the] round of 16 and quarters of slams going forward. We have a ton of really, really good players that are working hard. To be the last one out of that group is pretty cool.”
After 16 tries at a grand slam, the 26-year-old American Tennys Sandgren finds himself in the best American showing at the Australian Open since Andy Roddick’s quarterfinal appearance in 2010.
“I don’t know if this is a dream or not,” Sandgren said in his on-court interview.
Sandgren is taking advantage of being an unknown quantity.
“Maybe guys aren’t sure what to expect and they don’t know that I’m serving well and what spots I like, or how I’m going about playing the points, and I’m using that to my advantage,” Sandgren said.
He employed the same remarkable play he demonstrated in beating three-time slam champ Stan Wawrinka in the second round, converting break chances against Thiem, and hitting 63 winners and 20 aces.
Ranked No. 97, the American from Gallatin, Tennessee mostly played the Challenger Tour last year, in addition to a few ATP 250 and 500 tournaments, including making the round of 16 at last year’s Citi Open. He had dropped as low as the low 700’s when he was out for over six months after having hip surgery — which should give Andy Murray hope for his own hip surgery recovery.
“When you play Futures and Challengers for three, four years, you’re playing in obscurity, there’s not a lot of attention,” Sandgren said before the win over Thiem. “You play the game for other reasons. You don’t play the game for money or attention.”
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His ranking will rise up to the 6’s after the Australian Open. A tennis player who couldn’t afford to travel to tournaments with a coach or a trainer for years — another argument for Djokovic’s effort to remunerate lower ranked tennis players better — he will receive a significant paycheck of $352,000 by making it to a grand slam quarter. Before the AO, he had a career earnings of $488,735 after being on the Tour seven years. The higher ranking will also allow him access to higher level tournaments such as the Masters events and consistently make the main draws of the other tourneys.
The 26-year-old will face 21-year-old Hyeon Chung, having a Cinderella run of his own after defeating Novak Djokovic on the same day. The surprises keep coming out of Australia.