MELBOURNE, Jan 17 ― Chung Hyeon will not be repeating last year's giant-killing heroics in the Australian Open after crashing out to Pierre-Hugues Herbert in the second round today.
The 24th seeded South Korean lost 6-2, 1-6, 6-2, 6-4 to the unseeded Frenchman on Melbourne Arena.
Twelve months ago the little-known Chung, who models his game on Novak Djokovic, was the toast of the town as he tore through a tough half of the draw before hitting the buffers against Roger Federer in the semi-finals.
Chung has struggled to build on his breakout performance where he famously beat fourth seed Alexander Zverev and Djokovic en route to retiring in the second set against Federer with massive, deep blisters on both feet.
The 22-year-old, who was the 2017 ATP NextGen Finals champion, is currently ranked 25 but will plummet when the new rankings are announced post-Melbourne and his points from last year drop off his record.
Herbert will face big-serving Milos Raonic in the thrid round, after the Canadian came through in four tiebreaks against the 2014 Australian Open champion Stan Wawrinka. ― AFP
