The ATP season roars into full gear every year at the Australian Open, a two-week festival of high-end tennis competition featuring the biggest names in the sport. However, the biggest names in tennis are always expected to make the second week of the tournament. What about the names who were not expected to get this far yet pulled through? Here are four of the more notable examples.
Hyeon Chung
The outlook could not have been very positive for the South Korean after three sets. Alexander Zverev was imposing his powerful game on Chung and had a two sets to one lead. Then, however, Chung found a higher level and Zverev buckled in the face of the onslaught that came his way. Chung won 12 of the final 15 games of the match and rolled to a 6-0 win in the fifth set to advance to the fourth round of the Australian Open for the first time in his career. Chung is in his very early 20s and has so much to learn, but it is clear that he is growing and progressing on schedule, if not slightly ahead of schedule. This is the kind of performance which will represent a building block for the future and remind him that his hard work will pay off in long and physical matches against tough opponents. Chung has every reason to continue to trust his game.
Marton Fucsovics
It has been over 30 years since a Hungarian tennis player has made the fourth round of a major tournament. It last happened in 1984 at Roland Garros. Fucsovics played Marin Cilic in a very close match in the Basel ATP 500 quarterfinals late last October. It might have seemed like an unexpectedly close match at the time, but it’s clear that Fucsovics is a player on the rise who is consolidating gains more than a lot of people anticipated. His biggest win from week one was his victory over American Sam Querrey, who was a semifinalist at Wimbledon last year. Fucsovics is taking on all comers and showing great depth and diversity to his game.
Tomas Berdych
Though he has won over 600 matches and has made the semifinals of majors several times, this was not a tournament in which Berdych was expected to do much. Juan Martin del Potro was clearly favored over him in the third round, and even if Berdych got through that match, he was not expected to advance past the fourth round. Yet, David Goffin lost early in the tournament, so Berdych will be favored to beat Fabio Fognini and advance to a major quarterfinal in Australia. That would clearly eclipse original expectations for Berdych at this event.
Tennys Sandgren
The native of Tennessee is the subject of clever lines about being a “Tennys player from Tennis-see,” but once people get past the funny name, it’s clear that he has genuine talent on the court. Sandgren has won three straight main-draw tour-level matches for the first time in his career. He had never gone past the first round of a major in previous tries, but now he is all the way to a fourth round at a Grand Slam tournament. He took advantage of losses in his section of the draw by Roberto Bautista-Agut and Fernando Verdasco. This is a soaring performance well beyond what anyone thought he would produce in Melbourne.
Kyle Edmund
Kyle Edmund deserves credit for making it this far in the 2018 Australian Open. He is through to the quarterfinals, which is as far as the British player has ever made it in a grand slam.
Edmund upset No. 11 seed Kevin Anderson to start the tournament. He’s had a relatively easy time of things since then as he hasn’t had to face another seeded player. He will in the quarters when goes up against No. 3 seed Grigor Dimitrov. If he somehow gets through that, he’ll have to square off with No. 6 Marin Cilic or No. 1 seed Rafael Nadal in the semifinals.
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