New York, United States, 1 September 2024 | Matt Trollope
It seems that every few years, an Australian player scores a stunning result on the Grand Slam stage.
We saw it again on Friday night at the US Open, when Alexei Popyrin produced one of the biggest results of his career to upstage the legendary Novak Djokovic.
> READ: Popyrin stuns Djokovic as career highs continue at US Open
Djokovic, the defending champion, recent Olympic gold medallist and playing for a record 25th Grand Slam title, was described by Popyrin as the greatest of all time.
The Aussie beat him in four sets to advance to the fourth round at a Grand Slam for the first time.
The performance evoked memories of when a similarly-powerful Mark Philippoussis stunned world No.1 Pete Sampras at the Australian Open almost 30 years ago, also in a feature third-round night match.
And that’s where we begin this retrospective, revisiting 10 times less-fancied Australian players outplayed legends of the sport at Grand Slam tournaments.
Mark Philippoussis d. Pete Sampras
– Australian Open 1996
Philippoussis was a teenager ranked 40th, coming up against the reigning Wimbledon and US Open champion.
And the young Aussie beat the world No.1 in straight sets under lights at Rod Laver Arena – a match, and result, that helped boost the popularity of Australian Open night sessions.
It had been almost a decade since an Australian man had beaten a world No.1 at a Grand Slam tournament, and Philippoussis completed the upset with incredible explosiveness, overpowering Sampras and sealing the victory with an ace.
“There was excitement that we finally had a big man, playing a big man’s game, who could take it to the top players, the Samprases, Beckers and Agassis, fighting fire with fire,” recalled tennis writer and historian Suzi Petkovski.
Jelena Dokic d. Martina Hingis
– Wimbledon 1999
This first-round result was one of the greatest upsets in Grand Slam history.
World No.1 Martina Hingis – the reigning Australian Open champion and recent Roland Garros finalist – was expected to comfortably handle Dokic, a 16-year-old qualifier ranked outside the top 100.
Dokic instead humbled the five-time major champion, losing just two games.
“I went out there, and I was on a mission, and I knew exactly how I wanted to play and what I needed to do,” Dokic reflected in an appearance on The Sit-Down podcast.
It was the first big result in a magnificent career for Dokic, who went on to…
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