The 2018 Australian Open has been another disappointing major tournament for American men’s tennis players, except for one guy that few people had ever heard of when the tournament began.
Tennys Sandgren followed up a shocking upset over three-time Grand Slam winner Stan Wawrinka in the second round with a victory over Maximilian Marterer 5-7, 6-3, 7-5, 7-6 in third-round action. The 97th-ranked Sandgren moves on to the Australian Open’s Round of 16:
26-year-old @TennysSandgren defeats Maximilian Marterer at #AusOpen to make 4R at a major for the first time in his career, after two previous 1R losses (2017 French Open and US Open). This is also the first instance where Sandgren has won 3 consecutive matches at Tour level.
— ATP Media Info (@ATPMediaInfo) January 20, 2018
Sandgren was interviewed by ESPN’s Patrick McEnroe after the match, and told McEnroe that the idea of advancing to the Round of 16 at the Australian Open “sounds like a joke.”
“That sounds like a joke. Honestly, it sounds like a joke. It sounds like something I dreamt up and woke up.”
And yes, his name Tennys is pronounced like “tennis.” The 26-year-old spoke to the media about his name after his win over Wawrinka:
"My name is Tennys and I play tennis" 🎾
Really entertaining presser from @TennysSandgren, lots of fun pic.twitter.com/WjGCOnjNGs
— Emily Benammar (@EmilyBenammar) January 19, 2018
Sandgren is also from Tennessee (and played college tennis for the Vols), so it would be easy to assume that his name was either influenced by tennis or Tennessee, but his Wikipedia page has this helpful section clearing that up!
Tennys will look to keep playing great tennis in the Round of 16, where he’ll face No. 5 Dominic Thiem.
UPDATE: Tennys Sandgren just beat No. 5 Dominic Thiem 6-2, 4-6, 7-6, 6-3 to advance to the Australian Open quarterfinals. Incredible.
[ESPN2]
