MELBOURNE – Those who savor tales of sports, politics, war and business like to say that history is written by the winners. In this case, let us start at the opposite end.
Just past 5:30 p.m. today, fourth-seeded Alexander Zverev once again took a two sets to one lead in a third-round match at the Australian Open. A year ago on this middle Saturday, Zverev had been up similarly versus Rafael Nadal, only to lose the last two sets, 6-3, 6-2.
Versus Nadal, Zverev was ranked 24, still a teenager. The whole world was in front of him. By year’s end, he’d won five titles, earned wins over Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic and climbed as high as number three in the world.
But for all those achievements, as this year’s first major got underway, a mild mist hung over Zverev. Following that engaging effort versus Nadal, his results at the other three majors had been scarcely impressive—out in the first round of Roland Garros to 37th-ranked Fernando Verdasco, a 6-1 fifth set loss to Milos Raonic in the round of 16 of Wimbledon, eliminated in the second round of the US Open by 61st-ranked Borna Coric.
As Zverev stepped onto Rod Laver Arena to play Hyeon Chung, all that expectation and history hung in the atmosphere. Fortunately, the air was no longer toxic, the triple-digit temperatures of Thursday and Friday plummeting into the more manageable 70s.
Chung too had his own backstory. Two years ago at this event, he had been ranked 52 in the world. But as one Hall of Famer told me about Chung as we watched him lose to Novak Djokovic in the first round of the 2016 Australian Open, “He’s a challenger level player—at least right now.” Indeed in ’16, Chung played seven Challenger tournaments, his ranking by the end of that year down to 104.
In 2017, though, Chung had begun to march his way back up, posting solid results, including a run in Barcelona last spring where he’d come out of the qualifying to beat Zverev—their only prior match—and make it to the quarters. There’d come other fine results in ’17 and a good start in ’18, including a last eight run in Auckland. Though his current ranking of 58 was lower than where he’d been two years ago, it was clear immediately that he had become a much better player.
Through the first three sets, Zverev cracked his groundstrokes with power and precision, playing particularly well to close out each set. After three sets, the German had hit 48 winners, nearly double Chung’s tally of 25. It appeared Zverev’s artillery would be enough to take him to the round of 16 at a major for the second time.
Wrong. Very wrong. Unbelievably wrong. Disturbingly wrong.
It was one thing for Chung to grub out a 42-minute fourth set. The crowd, its table set earlier by Simona Halep’s 15-13 in the third win over Lauren Davis, sat in hopes of another epic close.
Guess again.
Zverev vanished, earning five points—that is not a typo—and lost the final set 6-0.
Chung has always been efficient with his feet and backhand, but of late, Chung’s forehand has improved, the stroke far more consistent and forceful. The first four sets had lasted a minute short of three hours. The fifth, a brisk 23 minutes. As the Aussies like to say, a shocker. According to Zverev, it “went so fast that I didn't really have time to realize what was happening.”
Certainly Chung deserves credit for the win and reaching the round of 16 at a major for the first time.
“When he plays like that,” said Zverev, “there is very, very few people who will beat him.”
But Zverev’s efforts at the majors have now gone from a state of mild concern to the start of potentially unsettling and profound head-scratching. He knows it too.
“It happened at Wimbledon,” said Zverev. “It happened in New York. It happened here. I'm still young, so I got time. I definitely have some figuring out to do for myself.”
The whole world will be watching.
Read Joel Drucker and Nina Pantic on TENNIS.com as they report from the Australian Open, and watch them each day on The Daily Mix:
