For just the second time since 2010, someone other than Novak Djokovic will win this year’s Australian Open men’s singles title, following one of the biggest upsets in the tournament’s history.
The second seed and two-time defending champion suffered his earliest defeat at the tournament since 2006, and his earliest defeat at any Grand Slam since Wimbledon in 2008, when he lost to Uzbekistan’s Denis Istomin, ranked 117th in the world, in an epic five-setter lasting four hours and 48 minutes.
After taking nearly 16 minutes to hold his first service game at the start of the match, the Serb knew he was in for a torrid time against an opponent he had defeated five times previously for the loss of one set.
Though Djokovic lost his serve midway through the opening set, he broke straight back to force a tiebreak, which Istomin took out ten points to eight after an hour and 25 minutes.
It marked the first time since 2011 that Djokovic lost a set in any of the first three rounds at Melbourne Park, and the first time since the 2013 final that he dropped the opening set in any match.
He then faced two set points at 4-5 down in the second, but reeled off three games in a row to take the set 7-5.
Reeling off four games in a row to take the third 6-2, taking a two-sets-to-one lead, had people thinking Djokovic were safe.
But the 30-year-old outsider, who is coached by his mother and was once the victim of a car crash that stopped him playing tennis for two years, broke for a 3-0 lead in the fourth set.
Istomin saved a set point in the tenth game before forcing a tiebreak, but the Djoker fell behind 0-5 before eventually losing it 5-7.
It was now two-sets all. Game on.
Djokovic served first to start the final set and at 2-all he dropped his serve to give Istomin the advantage. When it got to 5-3, the Serb had to hold if he was to stay alive in the tournament.
Eventually, Istomin reached match point and after Djokovic returned long, the Serb’s shot at a record seventh crown extinguished for at least another 12 months.
The 29-year-old’s defeat marks his earliest at the Australian Open since the Plexicushion surface was installed in 2008; he had reached the quarter-finals or better since the blue courts were brought in to replace the much-maligned Rebound Ace surface, on which his best result was a fourth-round showing in 2007.
It was also just his second defeat to a player ranked outside the top 100 in the past seven years, his first-round loss to Juan Martin del Potro at the Rio Olympics last August the only other occasion.
It also continued a woeful past seven months for the former world No.1, whose worrying regression continues after he had completed his set of Grand Slam titles at Roland Garros last June to be sitting on top of the tennis rankings with a massive lead of more than 8000 points over then-second ranked Andy Murray.
Since then, he lost in the third round at Wimbledon, was upset by eventual silver medallist Del Potro at the Rio Olympics, finished runner-up to Stan Wawrinka at the US Open, and lost his best-in-the-world ranking to his Scottish rival.
His shock loss will see him drop 1955 rankings points, but remain a clear-cut second, ahead of Milos Raonic and Wawrinka.
But with maximum points to defend at Masters tournaments such as Indian Wells, Miami and Madrid, as well as at the French Open, he could start to drift further away from Murray, who will retain the top ranking regardless of how he fares for the remainder of this tournament.
The other major upset of Day 4 saw third seed and two-time semi-finalist Agnieszka Radwanska suffer her earliest defeat at Melbourne Park since 2009, losing to 79th-ranked Croat Mirjana Lucic-Baroni.
Lucic-Baroni, who prior to this year hadn’t won a match at Melbourne Park in nearly two decades, stunned the Pole in straight sets on Margaret Court Arena.
Radwanska’s defeat clears the path for Karolina Pliskova to potentially face a rematch against Serena Williams in the semi-finals, after the Czech serve bot had stunned the American in the same stage at the US Open last September.
Williams, for her part, again made a mockery of a supposedly difficult match-up against Lucie Safarova by winning in straight sets.
Rod Laver Arena
Day session (starts 11am)
Eugenie Bouchard (CAN) vs CoCo Vandeweghe (USA)
[1] Angelique Kerber (GER) vs Kristyna Pliskova (CZE)
[4] Stan Wawrinka (SUI) vs [29] Viktor Troicki (SRB)
Night session (starts 7pm)
[WC] Ashleigh Barty (AUS) vs [Q] Mona Barthel (GER)
[10] Tomas Berdych (CZE) vs [17] Roger Federer (SUI)
Margaret Court Arena
Day session (starts 11am)
[11] Elina Svitolina (UKR) vs [24] Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova (RUS)
[12] Jo-Wilfried Tsonga (FRA) vs [23] Jack Sock (USA)
Ying-ying Duan (CHN) vs [13] Venus Williams (USA)
Night session (starts 7pm)
Lukas Lacko (SVK) vs [5] Kei Nishikori (JPN)
[32] Anastasija Sevastova (LAT) vs [7] Garbine Muguruza (ESP)
Hisense Arena
Jelena Jankovic (SRB) vs [8] Svetlana Kuznetsova (RUS)
[1] Andy Murray (GBR) vs [31] Sam Querrey (USA)
[27] Bernard Tomic (AUS) vs Daniel Evans (GBR)
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