Serving for a spot in the Australian Open semifinals and with the score at 40-love, Hyeon Chung started thinking how he might celebrate being the first Korean to reach the last four of a Grand Slam.
Not so fast. He hadn't let up when upsetting No. 4 Alexander Zverev or six-time Australian Open champion Novak Djokovic en route to the quarterfinals, but he let his guard down for a few points against No. 97-ranked Tennys Sandgren.
He missed four match points in the last game and had to fend off two break points, including one in a 31-shot rally dominated by slice backhands, before finally beating Sandgren 6-4, 7-6 (5), 6-3 at Rod Laver Arena on Wednesday.
In last game, I think at 40-love, I’m thinking what I had to do in ceremony or something like that. After deuce, break point. I was like, no, nothing to do with ceremony. But just keep playing — keep focusedHyeon Chung
Then he fully embraced the moment, joking with Jim Courier in an on-court TV interview, introducing the audience to his parents and his coach, and taking the microphone to speak in Korean to millions of new tennis fans back home.
The No. 58-ranked Chung is the lowest-ranked man to reach the Australian Open semifinals since Marat Safin in 2004. At 21, he’s also the youngest to reach the last four at a major since Marin Cilic did it here in 2010
After taking out Zverev and Djokovic, Chung could next face defending champion Roger Federer for a spot in the final. Federer will be playing Tomas Berdych later in the day in the quarterfinals.
Until the last game, Chung had been simply too consistent for Sandgren, a 26-year-old American who had never won a match at a Grand Slam tournament or beaten a top 10 player until last week.
Sandgren also had his unexpected run in the tournament where he beat 2014 champion Stan Wawrinka and No. 5 Dominic Thiem en route to the quarterfinals.
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