The main plot of tennis Majors, most of the time, is about the top players. At this year’s Australian Open, it was about Roger Federer’s quest for a 20th Grand Slam, who’ll fill Serena Williams’s void, and if Novak Djokovic can make a successful return?

It’s their pictures that adorn the arenas’ walls and stands, their names that feature in the headlines, their stories that matter the most.

Then, suddenly, someone does something special, knocks out a favourite, and from anonymity, they enter the limelight. These instances, in Slams, are rare, but they are the sweet little sub-plots. Without them, the tournament, and the sport itself, will be dull and boring. For, the victory of a star is satisfying, but the triumph of an underdog is always endearing.

There were four this year at the Australian Open – a bespectacled, polite youngster from South Korea, an American dude with a conversation-starter of a name, a Belgian student of Kim Clijsters, and a 15-year-old from Ukraine – who showed promise, provided thrills, evoked wonder, and made the sport a little richer.

Hyeon Chung

The Wikipedia list of Suwon’s famous residents needs an update. The list, which includes former Manchester United footballer Park Si Jung, cellist Han-na Chang and actor Joo Won, should now have the name of tennis’ latest spectacled sensation, Hyeon Chung. For, throughout the tournament, he ran and rallied, made us smile and wonder.

When Mischa Zverev retired hurt against him in the first round, we didn’t care. When Medvedev was beaten in straight sets, we didn’t see. But when the other Zverev brother – Alexander – was taken down in five sets, we asked: “Who is Hyeon Chung?”

Then, Chung answered that in the next match. He did to Novak Djokovic what Novak Djokovic has done to many others whilst winning six titles at Melbourne Park: push the opponent to the brink and out of the contest. The Serb, still in recuperation, was outhit by an unassuming 58th-ranked player from South Korea.

“Whenever he was in trouble, he came up with some unbelievable shots, passing shots. Just from the back of the court, you know, he was like a wall,” Djokovic said about Chung what countless players have said about Djokovic.

“He kind of forces you, I mean me, to kind of play on this edge where you’re kind of doing some really cool things, and then you can fall off it and make some mistakes because he’s forcing you to play so well,” was Tennys Sandgren’s testimony after he lost the quarter-finals to Chung in straight-sets.

But Chung’s not the next Djokovic. He’s just a normal guy, who’s looking to get Djokovic’s autograph, improve his tennis and better his English. Chung’s got a long way to go but looks like he’s got the fuel for that journey.

And, who knows? Chung, one day, might have a street named after him like his fellow Suwon resident Park Si Jung.

Elise Mertens

Mertens’ first tennis memory, her WTA bio says, is of watching Kim Clijsters live. Like many other kids who would’ve watched the same, she, too, would have wished of emulating the Belgian toughnut. Great players like Clijsters do that to kids. But not all would have come to Clijsters’s academy with a tennis racquet to learn, strive and succeed. Mertens did. No Belgian could make the semi-final at Melbourne Park since Clijsters did in 2012. Mertens did.

After qualifying for the semi-final, Mertens revealed she had been receiving advice from the four-time Grand Slam winner.

“Yeah, of course, a lot of time. She has been here before. She has the experience, so it’s always nice to talk to her.”

Mertens’s accomplishment is an ode to her role-model, a realisation of her own abilities. Her opponents till the semi-finals, she defeated in straight sets. Fourth seed Elina Svitolina was bagelled once in the quarter-final.

Caroline Wozniacki had to pass a tought test in the semi-final. The first set, she won 6-3 with a break . In the second, Mertens raised her level, broke the Dane’s serve, hit more winners, and gave her a scare before erring a lot in the tie-breaker.

The journey came to an end but it, she said, taught her: “Anything is possible. To believe in yourself.” Cliched phrases, yes. But important lessons too.

The little kid that saw Clijsters play seems like she can emulate the great deeds of her senior Belgian.

Tennys Sandgren

It was unfortunate in the end that people talked about Tennys Sandgren’s politics more than his prowess on court.

Entering the quarter-finals of a Major, beating two top-10 players – Stan Wawrinka and Dominic Thiem – is a journey that even Sandgren didn’t dream of. “I don’t know, man. I don’t know. I am starting to disbelieve that a little bit. I don’t know if it’s a dream or not,” he said in the post-match interview after defeating Wawrinka.

For, before this, to most people he was only a funky name. But Sandgren’s is an endearing story: one of sweat, struggle and surgery. When he was slowly accumulating ATP points, a labrum tear in his left hip sunk him to world No 714 in 2015.

Sandgren then returned, struggled, lost many, won some, and struggled more. It got him into the top-100 two months before the Australian Open began. He was in India, to prepare for the year’s first Slam at the Tata Open Maharashtra. But the eventual champ Gilles Simon cut his stay short.

Days later, Sandgren tried qualifying for the Australian Open main draw for the fifth time. Everyone he knew would’ve wished for his qualification. But not many – not even his mother – expected it.

“She’s not here,” he told tennis.com about his mom, ahead of his fourth-round match. “She’s a very realistic person so when I’m playing in a Slam she’s thinking: Well it’s only for a couple of days.”

Days later, Mrs Sandgren celebrated so hard that she crashed onto a pool table and cracked her rib.

Marta Kostyuk

Marta Kostyuk is not even eligible for a driving license in her country. Only last year, she won the Australian Open girls’ title at Melbourne Park. The talent at junior level doesn’t often transition successfully to the senior stage. But Kostyuk was at Melbourne Park again: this year, she was taking on the world’s top women of tennis. Big deal this for a teenager. But when she beat a couple of them to reach the third round, this little lady showed promise.

“She’s a great fighter. She always fights until the end...She has a bright future,” tweeted Marta’s fellow countrywoman and fourth seed Elina Svitolina.

They weren’t a compatriot’s obligatory words of support, it was competitor’s first-hand account. Svitolina beat her in straight sets, but she could see in little Kostyuka the desperation to win.

This desperation’s in a way good, but it can also cause disappointments. Few losses before the Australian Open caused frustration. Thoughts of quitting cropped up. This, many champions have gone through in sports. Heard of Roger Federer?

Kostyuk now works with Federer’s coach Ivan Ljubicic. Her first coach is a former tennis player who gave birth to her. The mother egged the daughter on when she couldn’t take failures and considered premature retirement.

With the right guidance, an effective overall game, Marta Kostyuk isn’t a fairytale that we finished hearing at Australian Open this year. It’s to be continued.