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Tennys Sandgren has taken the Australian Open by storm this fortnight. Entering the tournament without a main draw victory at a Grand Slam, the Tennessean has earned Top 10 wins over ATP World Tour stars Stan Wawrinka and Dominic Thiem, en route to the quarter-finals.
But it hasn’t all been straight-forward for the 26-year-old American. Sandgren's mother, Lia, was jumping up and down while celebrating his success back home when she fell on a pool table, landing in the hospital with a broken rib.
Sandgren addressed the bizarre injury in his post-match press conference after beating Thiem 6-2, 4-6, 7-6(4), 6-7(7), 6-3 on Monday in the fourth round.
“She didn't have a concussion, thankfully,” revealed Sandgren. “I've got a core neighbourhood group with my mom. They watch a lot of my bigger matches. They'll go in the basement and put the match on the projector screen on the bottom. She has a pool table down there, as well. They were jumping up and down and celebrating. She fell onto the pool table and cracked a rib. Whoops.”
Flashback: ATP’s DEUCE Magazine profiled Tennys Sandgren in 2004
Sandgren will be counting on the support of his mother as he attempts to turn the tables on Hyeon Chung on Wednesday, after losing in three sets to the reigning Next Gen ATP Finals champion at the ASB Classic in Auckland earlier this month.
"I was pretty worried. She was describing her pain level. She's a tough woman. I was like, 'You need to go to the hospital'. She's not a doctor person either. I am like, 'You need to go because you don't know if it's a cracked rib, if something is jabbing you in the lung or kidney'. I don't know if ribs can do that,” Sandgren told the press. "I was concerned about it. She went to the hospital, thankfully. She's lying down, resting, watching some tennis and having a good time.”
She’ll hope that her son, the first American quarter-finalist at the Australian Open since Andy Roddick in 2010, can take it one step further and keep his dream run alive against Chung. Speaking to Fox 17 Sports Overtime, Sandgren’s mother revealed, “I have spent most of this week in bed, watching from the comfort of my bed, my son playing tennis Down Under.”
One certainly cannot blame Sandgren's mother for her level of celebration. Tennys is the first player since Martin Verkerk at 2003 Roland Garros to earn his first Grand Slam victory en route to the quarter-finals. His match against Chung will be the first time two players outside the Top 50 of the ATP Rankings will battle in the quarter-finals, semi-finals or final of the Australian Open since the 1991 quarter-finals (No. 114 Patrick McEnroe d. No. 101 Cristiano Caratti).
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Sandgren's run is one dreams are made of, and nobody would blame him for pinching himself to make sure it's real.
"I actually did a little bit at the end of the match doing the post match interview thinking this would be one of those moments where you wake up. Obviously the first three matches were more than I expected. This one was about as hard-fought as I've ever had a match before. My biggest match, as well, pretty neat," Sandgren said. "I definitely had a real pinch-me moment. 'Wow, this is hopefully real. If I wake up now, I'm going to be real upset'."
Sandgren won't wake up just yet because this is not a dream. But he can make it even better Wednesday against Chung with his mother watching from afar — from the safety of her bedreadfullarticle
