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Fifth seed Nikolay Davydenko was stunned 6-4 4-6 6-3 7-6 by qualifier Gilles Muller of Luxembourg in the US Open fourth round on Wednesday.
World number 130 Muller became the lowest-ranked player to reach the US Open men's quarter-finals since 1999 and the first man from his country to advance to the last eight of a grand slam.
He outplayed the Russian world number five with his serve-and volley tactics, hammering down 20 aces and taking advantage of a number of Davydenko errors at key moments.
"It's really crazy," Muller told reporters. "I wasn't thinking about it myself, to be here in the second week.
"I was used to watch the second week, especially the quarter- finals, from home on my sofa, watching on TV."
The first set went with serve until the 10th game when a sluggish Davydenko gave away two points with unforced errors that cost him the set.
Muller went on the offensive to apply the pressure in the second set, coming to the net on Davydenko's serve and securing an early break before finishing a love service game with an ace to ram home his advantage.
Davydenko raised his game to break back in the seventh, reaching a tough backhand volley at a stretch to take the game. He broke again and took the set, only to let Muller back in the match in the third.
Muller's go-for-broke style meant his unforced errors outnumbered Davydenko's by 45 to 22 but the Russian's mistakes tended to come at important moments.
Muller pulled out his best shots when it mattered, serving an ace to save a set point at 4-5 in the fourth set and saving another with a big serve at 6-7 down in the tiebreaker.
Both men had chances to win the tiebreaker before Davydenko gifted his opponent a match point at 10-10 with a double fault and a lucky netcord handed Muller victory.
"It's not about only the last point," Davydenko said. "It was many points. I had so many chances, you know, winning the fourth set, but I didn't."
The 2001 junior champion at Flushing Meadows, Muller is only the second qualifier in the professional era to reach the US Open men's quarter-finals where he will play second seed Roger Federer.
Davydenko had not dropped a set in the first three rounds and seemed to have put behind him a stretch of poor form since losing in the first round at Wimbledon.
