Tennis Channel recaps early quarterfinal action from the Australian Open, where Kyle Edmund upset No. 3 seed Grigor Dimitrov and Elise Mertens knocked off No. 4 seed Elina Svitolina. USA TODAY Sports
MELBOURNE — The 2018 edition of the Australian Open will not be crowning an American singles champion after Tennys Sandgren, the last American standing, was sent packing.
In a battle between two unseeded quarterfinalists, 58th-ranked Hyeon Chung shined in ousting the 97th-ranked Sandgren to secure his first Grand Slam semifinal spot with a 6-4, 7-6 (5), 6-3 win.
Madison Keys, the last American woman remaining in the draw, went out directly before Sandgren in a 6-1, 6-2 loss to Angelique Kerber.
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The 26-year-old Sandgren won four consecutive tour-level matches for the first-time in his career at this Australian Open, and enjoyed success against not just one, but two, top 10 players — Stan Wawrinka and Dominic Thiem — for the first time as well.
Sandgren, however, wasn’t just making headlines here because of his performance on the tennis court. The Tennessee native became an overnight curiosity, which caused people to start searching his name on the Internet.
It was discovered that his Twitter feed had multiple references and retweets related to the alt-right movement. When asked about them on Monday, Sandgren that his Twitter account doesn’t necessarily represent his personal beliefs. He said many of the mentions on his Twitter account were contrary to his role as a devout Christian, but he also indicated he was not bothered by them being up on his feed.
Nevertheless, by Tuesday morning many of the questionable tweets had been deleted from his Twitter account.
More: Tennys Sandgren faces questions about social media links to alt-right movement
More: Tennys Sandgren deletes tweets after questions about controversial content
On Wednesday when Sandgren came to his post-match press conference he put his hand up to silence any questions and proceeded to read the following statement.
“You seek to put people in these little boxes so that you can order the world in your already assumed preconceived ideas. You strip away any individuality for the sake of demonizing by way of the collective.
“With a handful of follows and some likes on Twitter, my fate has been sealed in your minds. To write an edgy story, to create sensationalist coverage, there are a few lengths you wouldn't go to to mark me as the man you desperately want me to be.
“You would rather perpetuate propaganda machines instead of researching information from a host of angles and perspectives while being willing to learn, change, and grow. You dehumanize with pen and paper and turn neighbor against neighbor. In so doing, you may actually find you're hastening the hell you wish to avoid, the hell we all wish to avoid.
“It is my firm belief that the highest value must be placed on the virtue of each individual, regardless of gender, race, religion or sexual orientation. It's my job to continue on this journey with the goal of becoming the best me I can and to embody the love Christ has for me, for I answer to Him and Him alone.
“I'll take questions about the match, if you guys don't mind. Thank you. If you have any questions about the match.”
In the match, Sandgren wasn’t quite willing to walk away quietly though, surviving five match points before he couldn’t prevent his fate on a sixth opportunity for Chung. The Korean had one match point on Sandgren’s serve in the eighth game and then five in the final game.
Chung was at 40-0 in the last game, but had to wait until he forced a forehand error from Sandgren to end the 2 hour, 28 minute encounter.
In the semifinals he’ll face either second-seeded Roger Federer, the defending champion, or 19th-seeded Tomas Berdych. Chung already made history as the first Korean player — man or woman — to ever journey as far as a Grand Slam quarterfinal before he booked a trip to the semis.
Chung is one of two unseeded players to advance to this year’s semifinal. On Tuesday, Briton Kyle Edmund upset third-seeded Grigor Dimitrov in a stunning four-set victory.
This marks the first time since 1999 when more than one unseeded player barged their way into the semifinals. In that year, Swede Thomas Enquist, German Tommy Haas and Ecuadorian Nicolas Lapentti journeyed to the final four with Enquist losing out to 10th-seeded Russian Yevgeny Kafelnikov in the final.
Chung won the inaugural Next Gen ATP Finals title for 21-and-under players, defeating Russian Andrey Rublev in the final, last November.
