Chung has already ditched fourth seed Sascha Zverev from the tournament and would give Novak a decent workout.
The first two points of the first game, Djokovic serving, went as expected with the fourteenth seed forcing errors and leading 30-0.
Then the world changed - two unforced backhand errors followed by two awful looking double faults resulted in a break of serve and a gift to Chung.
Djokovic had two chances to break back but Chung buried those and hit an ace and a pair of winners to consolidate the break. 2-0.
Novak continued his horrible start with a pair of double faults and a Chung winner had the Serb down three break points. One was saved but eventually an unforced error saw Hyeon lead 3-0.
Djokovic hit a winner in Chung’s next service game, but was more than matched by a litany of mistakes, making the Korean task simple, and Chung lead 4-0.
Whatever was wrong with Djokovic, the six time champion was not going to let this start stop him from digging in and fight for the set.
He finally held serve, then on a fifth break point converted to trail 2-4.
Djokovic struggled through three deuces to hold serve and close to 3-4.
Chung was within a game of the set after three forehand winners helped him clinch game eight and extend his to 5-3.
Djokovic won the next two games, including the break of Chung as he was serving for the set at 5-4.
Only one point was lost by Novak in this two game stretch.
5-5 became 6-6 as the next two serves were held, with Djokovic saving a break point, and a tie break was needed.
At 3-3 in the tie break, Djokovic lost both of the points on his serve.
Accordingly, Chung brought up three set points, the second which was used to win him the opening set 7-6(4).
The opening game of set two lasted about nine minutes, with Chung saving four break points and winning it with a forehand.
He then broke Djokovic and held again for 3-0.
It became 4-1 as serves were comfortably held.
Djokovic proceeded to win three games in succession, saving a break point in the sixth before breaking the Korean serve and then levelling at 4-4.
At 5-6 Djokovic had game point, but he crumbled with a double fault and two wayward shots to hand the second set to Chung 7-5.
Djokovic broke Chung in the opening game of set three before Chung won the next three games.
Djokovic broke in the fifth game after wasting three chances.
The two both saved break points en route to 4-4.
No real drama until the tie break.
Chung won the first three points, then Djokovic responded with the next three, only a single point decided with a winning shot.
That was the final winning point for the returning six time champion as Chung ticked off the remaining four to win his biggest match yet.
7-6(4) 7-5 7-6(3).
The first quarter final in a Grand Slam tournament for Hyeon Chung and he will play American unseeded Tennys Sandgren, who knocked out Dominic Thiem (5), after earlier dispensing with Stan Wawrinka (9).
Sandgren and Chung have done a lot of clearing work for Federer.
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