Top 10 Stories from the 2017 Australian Open

5. Both Number Ones Out on the Same Day

Mikhail Zverev, commonly known as Mischa, is a veteran of the tour overshadowed by the recent rise of younger brother Alex. His best slam result before this year was back in 2008, when he reached the third round of Wimbledon. Injuries laid him low after that, and it took time for him to return to the top 100. His reaching the fourth round here was accomplishment enough, especially when he took out top American John Isner in five. But when he reached newly crowned men’s number one Andy Murray, he did something truly crazy: he beat him. Murray perhaps could’ve played better, but it was less that than that Zverev played out of his mind. He especially trounced him in the third set, before wrapping it up in the fourth.

That would’ve been enough for one day. But that evening, ladies number one Angelique Kerber took the court for her fourth round against American Coco Vandeweghe, and barely an hour later walked off the loser, having been outhit in straights. This wasn’t quite as much of a shock, since Vandeweghe had some success last year, except that the scoreline kind of was. Also that both the world’s top players had been beaten within hours of each other. In the tournament’s hundred year history, that had never happened before the quarterfinals. It was also the first time both number ones lost on the same day of a slam since 2014 Wimbledon. It especially left the men’s tournament reeling, with Djokovic already out.

Zverev went out quietly to Federer in the next round. Coco Vandeweghe became a story of her own…