Jordan Thompson goes down fighting in nail-biting Australian Open loss to Stefanos Tsitsipas

Melbourne Park darling Stefanos Tsitsipas has ended the Australian Open run of Jordan Thompson with a scintillating 4-6, 7-6, 6-2, 7-6 victory in the second round on Wednesday night.

The world No 7 did not have it all his own way against the Sydneysider, who was close to taking a two-sets-to-love lead in a critical tiebreak, and had four chances to tie the match at two sets. But Tsitsipas survived intense pressure from the dangerous world No 47, securing the result in four nail-biting sets, over three hours and 37 minutes.

“The adrenaline and the rush that I got out of this match was insane,” Tsitsipas said afterwards. “The intensity was there today. We were both able to peak in terms of our tennis at some point during the match, Jordan fighting when I was serving for the match, he had an incredible comeback.”

Thompson looked buried in the fourth set, with the Greek finding his groove with his angular serve and his heavy groundstrokes to take a 5-3 lead. Tsitsipas even had two match points before the Australian somehow found a way back in as the match entered its fourth hour. Sending a forehand deep to the Tsitsipas backhand, Thompson charged the net, tucking home the volley to tie the fourth set at 5-5.

After holding to love, Thompson then had four set points on the Greek’s serve in a marathon twelfth game, lasting more than 12 minutes. But the extra point proved elusive, and Tsitsipas steadied to take the deciding tiebreak 7-4.

“I haven’t had a lot of times in my career where I wasn’t able to close the match, especially on my serve,” the 2023 Australian Open finalist said. “For me, the challenge there was to not break down. I feel like it would be easy to be the guy that becomes a victim of that. But I refused that myself, because I know deep inside that I’m way better than that, and I can handle difficult situations because of my past and the things that I went through.”

The riveting spectacle was played in front of close to 7,500 enthralled fans in the Margaret Court Arena, split in support evenly between the two combatants. Melbourne’s Greek diaspora made their presence felt, their blue and white flags fluttering as evening turned into night on the tournament’s fourth day. “We were able to create an unbelievable atmosphere tonight,” Tsitsipas said. “There were people shouting from both ends, mine and Jordan’s.”

Thompson – who beat countryman Aleks Vukic in the first round – loomed as a test for Tsitsipas, after the Australian won the last match between the pair, at Indian Wells last year. The Greek player had a disappointing 2023 despite his run to the final in Melbourne. At that point he was close to the No 1 ranking, but by the end of the year he had won just a single tournament, an ATP 250 event in Mexico.

Much of his lead-in to this tournament had been interrupted by a back injury, but he said prior to Wednesday’s match he had fully recovered. Watching him struggle to impose himself against Thompson in the early stages might have left some of his many Melbourne supporters with lingering doubts.

A break of serve midway through the first set helped the Australian into the lead, before the second set went on serve without a single break point opportunity.

Given how well Thompson was playing, his punchy baseline endeavours complemented by the odd charge to the net, it was unfortunate he lost the first three points of the second-set tiebreaker. But he rallied and saved three set points. All the momentum was with the Australian at the change of ends, but a long return and netted backhand left the match all square.

The swing appeared to rattle Thompson, and his frustrations got the better of him early in the third set. A black piece of plastic ricocheted across the court when he drove his racquet into the surface, down 3-0. He eventually came around to set up the dramatic finale, but the Greek ultimately did just enough.

Tsitsipas now looks forward to a meeting with 178cm-tall French player Luca Van Assche, who beat 25th-seeded Italian Lorenzo Musetti in five sets. “He has a good baseline game, he moves pretty well,” Tsitsipas said. “Obviously, he’s not the tallest of players, but he can really play well and stay in the rallies.”

Thompson is entered in the doubles draw with countryman Max Purcell, who plays Casper Ruud in the second round of the men’s singles on Thursday.