Hyeon Chung has lifted the lid on engaging in an epic slice-a-thon with Tennys Sandgren late in the South Korean's quarter-final win over his American opponent.
The 21-year-old defeated Sandgren in straight sets on Wednesday to progress to a semi-final against world No.2 Roger Federer or Tomas Berdych, but it only came after a long battle in the final game of the match.
Serving for the win, Chung coughed up three match points and then faced two break opportunities in a deuce.
"In the last game, 40-0 up, I started thinking about what I had to do in the ceremony, something like that," Chung joked to Jim Courier.
"After the deuce, break point, I was like, nothing to do with the ceremony, just play, keep focused."
The slice rally was epic. Pic: Getty More
The second of Sandgren's break points included a long rally that included numerous consecutive slice backhands.
With the American trying to force Chung into a mistake and Chung sitting back to avoid giving up the point, neither player relented until after more than a dozen of the slowest shots in the game.
A Chung slice swung towards Sandgren's forehand, and a couple of shots later Sandgren put one into the net.
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Chung suggested after the match that his tactic was simple: he never planned to break the run of slice backhands.
"Because I was break point down, I didn't (want to) do anything," he said.
"Just put the ball in first, then I had to run a lot."