Hyeon Chung makes more history at the Australian Open

Hyeon Chung has reached the semifinals of a Grand Slam event for the first time, following up his upset victory over six-time Australian Open champion Novak Djokovic in the fourth round with a 6-4, 7-6 (5), 6-3 win over Tennys Sandgren on Wednesday.

In the women’s draw, top-seeded Simona Halep of Romania defeated No. 6-seeded Karolina Pliskova of the Czech Republic 6-3, 6-2, and will play in the semifinals against Angelique Kerber of Germany, who defeated Madison Keys of the U.S. 6-1, 6-2.

The No. 58-ranked Chung is the first Korean player to reach the semifinals of a major, and the lowest-ranked man to reach the Australian Open semifinals since Marat Safin in 2004.

After taking out No. 4 Alexander Zverev and 12-time major winner Djokovic in consecutive rounds, Chung could next face defending champion Roger Federer for a spot in the final. Federer was playing Tomas Berdych later Wednesday in the quarterfinals.

Chung, 21, missed four match points in the final game and had to fend off two break points as the pressure increased.

“In last game, I’m thinking to start what I had to do in ceremony or something like that,” he said, explaining how he got slightly ahead of himself. “After deuce, break point. Nothing to do with ceremony. Just keep focused.”

Until the last game, Chung had been simply too consistent for No. 97-ranked Sandgren, the 26-year-old American who had never won a match at a Grand Slam tournament or beaten a top 10 player until last week.

Halep recovered from an early service break and won nine consecutive games. She’s seeking her first major title.

Kerber also cruised, winning the first four games against the No. 17-seeded Keys, who held in the fifth game of the first set. Kerber went on another roll to lead 3-0 in the second set.

Keys slowed the momentum by holding and then getting her first service break of the match, but Kerber responded quickly to finish it off in 51 minutes. She broke Keys six times and improved to 7-1 against her.

“I’m not going to walk away from this tournament and think it was terrible because I had one bad match,” Keys said. “I definitely think I have taken a lot of steps in the right direction and feel good about my game and feel like I’m thinking a lot clearer out there. I think it’s just going to take a little bit of time.”

Sixteen-time major champion Rafael Nadal of Spain said an MRI exam confirmed he has a muscle injury in his upper right leg.

The top-ranked Nadal retired from his quarterfinal match against Marin Cilic of Croatia on Tuesday night while trailing 0-2 in the fifth set.

Also Tuesday, second-ranked Caroline Wozniacki of Denmark defeated Carla Suarez Navarro of Spain 6-0, 6-7 (3), 6-2 in the quarterfinals.

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