FLUSHING MEADOWS, New York, Aug. 30 (Xinhua) -- Martin Klizan of Slovakia caused the biggest upset of the US Open to date with a four-set victory over No. 5 seed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga.
Tsonga, the Wimbledon semifinalist in July, is a player of huge talent but he make a shocking under-par display against the little- known left-handed Slovak, losing 6-4, 1-6, 6-1 and 6-3.
Tsonga surrendered an early break. He hit back in the fourth game, wowing the crowd with some fantastic touch play at the net, celebrating the point with a pump of the fist.
All the hard work was undone as he dropped his serve again and Klizan, the 52nd ranked player, found a big serve to close out the opening set.
Klizan has risen through the rankings this year, but he is still hugely inconsistent and he dropped the second set in a blink of an eye.
But it did not spark a revival as Tsonga failed to find any sort of form and Klizan broke in the third courtesy of a fine passing shot and mishit forehand from Tsonga.
Another horror game from Tsonga saw him fall 4-0 behind and it resulted in him smashing his racket to pieces.
The expected Tsonga revival failed to come in the fourth and he dropped his opening two service games which handed Klizan the cushion he needed to secure a famous win.
Tsonga last failed to make it through two matches at a major when he lost to Andy Roddick in the first round of the 2007 Australian Open.
Tsonga reached the 2008 Australian Open final. Klizan never before reached the third round at a Grand Slam tournament.
The hard courts may not be the favored surface of Nicolas Almagro, but the Spaniard is a determined character and he proved the point with a 6-3, 5-7, 5-7, 6-4, 6-4 win over Philipp Petzschner.
Kei Nishikori's progress continued, with the No. 17 seed disposing of Tim Smyczek 6-2, 6-2, 6-4 to reach the third round.