Jan 23, 2018
South Korea’s Chung Hyeon played superbly to beat Novak Djokovic at the Australian Open as the six-time champion struggled with injury.
Chung, 21, won 7-6 (7-4) 7-5 7-6 (7-3) to become the first Korean player to reach the last eight at a Grand Slam.
He will face another surprise quarter-finalist after American Tennys Sandgren upset fifth seed, Dominic Thiem.
Djokovic, 30, had treatment to his right elbow after the first set and was visibly in pain at times.
“Unfortunately, it’s not great,” he said afterward.
“Kind of the end of the first set it started hurting more, so I had to deal with it until the end of the match.”
The Serb, seeded 14th, missed the second half of the 2017 season with an elbow injury and was making his return to competitive action in Melbourne.
“I was hoping I can go through [the tournament],” he added.
“But I don’t want to talk about my injury tonight because then I’m taking away Chung’s victory, the credit that he deserves.”
Djokovic made it through three rounds but could not cope with a brilliant performance from Chung, while at the same time clearly struggling physically.
Chung’s ability to turn defense into attack and prevail in epic rallies was reminiscent of Djokovic himself.
“When I’m young, I’m just trying to copy Novak because he’s my idol,” said Chung.
Source: BBC
