Six time Champion, Novak Djokovic and fifth seed Dominic Thiem have been knocked out at Australia Open.
South Korea’s Hyeon Chung played superbly to beat Djokovic, while Thiem was stunned byWorld number 97 Tennys Sandgren .
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. Kind of end of the first set it started hurting more, so I had to deal with it until the end of the match.” he said afterwards.
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]. 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.” he added.
Djokovic made it through three rounds but could not cope with a brilliant performance from Chung, while at the same time clearly struggling physically.
