“You know, rankings sometimes lie,” Sascha Zverev said following his 5-7 7-6(3) 2-6 6-3 6-0 third round defeat by world No.58 Hyeon Chung on Rod Laver Arena on Saturday. “The way he was playing, it was definitely not whatever he is ranked. This was a top-10-level match from the start until the end.”
As kids their age say, game recognises game – and if the past few days are any indication of what the future of men’s tennis holds for us, bring it on. Hot on the heels of Nick Kyrgios’s controlled demolition of Jo-Wilfried Tsonga on Friday night, 20-year-old Zverev and 21-year-old Chung made good on the promise of their first Grand Slam showdown – and as Zverev was the first to testify, it was Chung who heads into the fourth round with his reputation markedly enhanced.
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Chung made a little history on Rod Laver Arena into the bargain, becoming just the third Korean player to reach the second week of a Grand Slam tournament in the nation’s history, matching Hyung-Taik Lee’s 2000 and 2007 runs at the US Open and Duk-Hee Lee’s 1981 run in New York.
He also completed the AO double over the brothers Zverev, adding Sascha’s scalp to his opening win over Mischa, forced to retire in the second set of their first-round encounter. Suffice to say, beating the younger sibling required far more of him, but how he delivered in this second victory over the world No.4, his first against an opponent ranked in the top 10.
Fittingly, in the words of ZZ Top(ped), Chung has legs, and knows how to use them. He credited a tough pre-season training block in Bangkok for his freshness in the fourth hour of the match, sprinting to the finish line with Zverev in meltdown at the other end.
“Training in Thailand, with my team – they’re always with me in bad times, good times, and I’m so thankful,” said Chung, far better than his status beyond the top 50 might suggest. “Today was a really tough match. I know he’s a really good player and we know how to play each other. I just tried to play 100 per cent.”
The foundations for what was to come were laid early on as Zverev, firing head-turning winners seemingly at will, could not shake his dogged opponent. Chung saw a break point come and go early in the opener before the German struck in the 12th game, breaking to 15 to steal ahead.
The second set was even tighter, neither man fashioning a break point behind some stellar serving before Chung let fly with a couple of fine backhand winners during a five-point surge that settled the tiebreak.
As is so often the way in this sport, however, Chung’s missed chance to fashion a break was followed by a slump in the following game, Zverev breaking for a 2-1 lead and breaking once more for 5-2, the momentum firmly with the German for the first time.
At the start of the fourth, however, Zverev became distracted by the overcast conditions, complaining of darkness with the clock barely beyond 6pm. “I can't see anything,” he pleaded with the umpire having slipped 2-0 down. After the stadium lights had been turned on, the Korean consolidated his lead to send the match into a decider one minute shy of the three-hour mark.
Whether mentally or physically, by then Zverev was a beaten man. While Chung won the last six games in the final set, the German claimed just five points – three of them aces. It was a timid, error-strewn end to another Grand Slam that failed to produce his anticipated title tilt.
After slipping a double-break down at 3-0 he mangled his racquet with an execution far more effective than anything he produced with one in his hand during the 23-minute finale, a sorry climax to an otherwise dramatic battle.
“I think we both played very good for four sets,” Zverev said. “I think the match was very high level. I don't think it was bad at all. Even in the fourth set, you know, after I lost my serve, I think I still played well. I still had chances to break him back. Then the fifth set went so fast that I didn't really have time to realise what was happening.
“I have some figuring out to do, what happens to me in deciding moments in Grand Slams. It happened at Wimbledon. It happened in New York. It happened here. I'm still young, so I’ve got time.”
For Chung, however, the odyssey continues. He awaits either six-time champion Novak Djokovic or Albert Ramos Vinolas for a place in the quarterfinals; should it be the Serbian, at least Chung has a reference point, having faced the 12-time major winner in the first round of his sixth run to the Australian Open title in 2016.
