What a tournament it has been from South Korea Hyeon Chung. He has powered his way into the semi-final of the Australian Open with some style. The youngster, who won the inaugural Next Gen ATP Finals at the back end of last year, sailed through to the semi-finals of the Grand Slam with a straight-sets victory over the unseeded American Tennys Sandgren. 21-year-old Chung becomes the youngest player to reach a Grand Slam semi final for eight years now.
He is ranked down at 58th in the world and therefore is the lowest-ranked player to get to the final four in Melbourne for 14 years. This hasn’t just been a case of him getting through matches against lower ranked opponents because he has overcome some top talent. He ditched the fourth seed Alexander Zverev out of the competition in a huge upset in the third round and he was waiting to deliver an even bigger upset down the line.
In the fourth round of competition, he was paired up against six-time Australian Open title winner Novak Djokovic. Chung took him down in three sets. It was a huge win for the South Korean as he dumped Djokovic out, although they Serbian clearly wasn’t at ease with his troubled elbow at all in the match. Still, Chung had to win the match and he did and then he made easy work of Sandgren.
Roger Federer made it through to his 14th Australian Open semi-final as he moved past Tomas Berdych in straight sets. It means that the 36-year-old has moved through the tournament without dropping a set so far and that’s important because it keeps him fresh. It has been a fairly simple exercise for him in Melbourne as he goes in search of what would be his 20th Grand Slam title. Will the master tame the student?
Federer v Chung head to head
This will be the first ever match up between the two players.
Federer v Chung Winner Odds
Federer 1/7, Chung 9/2* (betting odds taken on January 24th at 10:37 p.m.).
Prediction
It has been fantastic stuff from Chung and he is clearly a future star. However, something that is so precious on occasions like this is experience. Federer has it in spades and his ability to keep calm in situations is likely going to keep the young challenger at bay. Federer is the master at coming up with tactics to suit the occasions and Chung may leave the tournament, but with his head held high still. You wouldn’t put it past Feds to roll out a straight sets victory at William Hill for 5/6*(betting odds taken on January 24th at 10:37 p.m.).
