Sent packing

MELBOURNE, January 22 

For Novak Djokovic it must have felt like some nightmarish fight to the death against a clone of himself on Monday as Chung Hyeon stunned the six-time Australian Open champion with a display ripped straight out of the Serb’s textbook. The 30-year-old who has ruled like no other on Rod Laver Arena simply had no answer as Chung, nine years his junior, wore him into the ground to win 7-6(4) 7-5 7-6(3) and become the first South Korean to reach a Grand Slam quarterfinal where he will face American Tennys Sandgren.

Time and again during the three hour 21 minute encounter, 14th seed Djokovic had Chung on the run but the world No. 58 displayed almost superhuman court coverage to prevail in rallies he had no right to still be involved in.

It is exactly those defensive skills that have earned Djokovic 12 Grand Slam titles and it was no surprise when, after claiming the biggest scalp of his career, the spectacle-wearing Chung described the Serb as his idol.

Tellingly, Chung won 34 of the 54 rallies that exceeded nine strokes, most memorably when he slid at full-stretch to hook a forehand winner past his opponent to take a 5-3 lead in the third set tiebreak. It proved the final straw for a weary Djokovic who netted a forehand return on the next point and then shunted a backhand into the tramlines after yet more Chung defiance. The ice-cool Chung barely celebrated, but after being warmly congratulated by Djokovic he walked across to milk the applause from the sell-out crowd, including a sizeable Korean contingent. To his credit, Djokovic, who again wore a compression sleeve on his playing arm to protect the elbow that forced him off Tour last year and was clearly causing discomfort, fought tenaciously like the great champion he is. — Reuters

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Making Waves

"Amazing performance. He was a better player tonight. We do play very similar. He has the game to be a top-10 player" — Novak Djokovic

"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 so I don’t care!’ I was just trying to copy Novak because he’s my idol. My dreams have come true tonight." — Hyeon Chung

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‘Elbow affected serve’

Kind of end of the first set it (elbow) started hurting more. So, yeah, I had to deal with it till the end of the match. It’s frustrating, of course, when you have that much time and you don’t heal properly. 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 is a big shot, especially against Chung, who returns well, gets a lot of balls back.

Another layoff?

I really don’t know. 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. — Novak Djokovic

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Bops, Divij lose

Rohan Bopanna and Divij Sharan lost their respective men’s doubles third round matches. Bopanna and Edouard Roger-Vasselin of France lost to Oliver Marach of Austria and Croatia’s Mate Pavic 6-4 6-7(5) 3-6. Sharan and Rajeev Ram of the USA suffered a 6-3 6-7(4) 4-6 defeat at the hands of Lukasz Kubot of Poland and Brazil’s world No. 1 Marcelo Melo. — PTI

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On sunny day, Federer stays cool

Roger Federer was a strictly nocturnal beast throughout the first week but proved just as effective with the sun on his back as he sauntered into the quarterfinals for the 14th time. The defending champion did not require his dazzling best against 80th-ranked Hungarian Marton Fucsovics in his first match scheduled during the day session but still emerged a comfortable 6-4 7-6(3) 6-2 winner. After his earlier-than-usual finish, the 36-year-old world No. 2 said he might even be able to make the most of a night off and take his wife Mirka out for dinner. “It’s a different rhythm playing in the day and not going to bed at 3am. We might go out for dinner tonight but Mirka has left already — she must have other plans!” Federer said. — Reuters

Other results: Tomas Berdych bt Fabio Fognini 6-1 6-4 6-4; Angelique Kerber bt Hsieh Su-wei 4-6 7-5 6-2; Madison Keys bt Caroline Garcia 6-3 6-2; Karolina Pliskova bt Barbora Strycova 6-7(5) 6-3 6-2

Key matches on Tuesday: 3-Grigor Dimitrov vs Kyle Edmund; Carla Suarez Navarro vs 2-Caroline Wozniacki; 1-Rafa Nadal vs 6-Marin Cilic 

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Halep beats pain

World No. 1 Simona Halep shook off a sleepless night racked with ankle pain to sweep past rising Japanese star Naomi Osaka and into the quarterfinals with a 6-3 6-2 victory. The courageous Halep coaxed her sore ankle ligaments through a three-set marathon against her previous opponent on Saturday but the effort left her miserably sore.”Last night was really tough. I couldn’t sleep. I had pain everywhere,” she said. “But I slept before the match two hours and it worked perfect. Ankle is still sore. But, you know, I’m not thinking about that any more.” — Reuters

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