- \n
- Australian Jordan Thompson has broken back into the world\u2019s top 50 ahead of the US Open, which starts this week.<\/li>\n
- He is one of eight Aussies in the top 100 playing at Flushing Meadow, half of them inside the top 50, while Rinky Hijikata (ranked 111) has also made the singles draw.<\/li>\n
- After years of tough slog on the tour, Thompson recently clocked his 100th singles win, and has put up encouraging performances against Novak Djokovic and Carlos Alcaraz.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
Everything is relative on the mean streets of the professional tennis tour.<\/p>\n
Jordan Thompson \u2013 one of four Australian men inside the top 50 in last week\u2019s ATP rankings \u2013 celebrated his 100th career tour-level victory this month in Washington, over wily French veteran Adrian Mannarino.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Australian Jordan Thompson on the stretch against Carlos Alcaraz at the Western and Southern Open in Ohio earlier this month.<\/span>Credit: <\/span>Getty<\/cite><\/p>\n
Novak Djokovic, for (an unfair) comparison\u2019s sake, claimed win No.1069 when he beat Carlos Alcaraz in an almost-four-hour final to claim this month\u2019s Cincinnati Masters 1000 title.<\/p>\n
But not even the great Roger Federer\u2019s resume measures up with Djokovic.<\/p>\n
\u201cI reckon maybe only 30 of the guys in the top 100 right now would have won over 100 matches, so that was a pretty good milestone,\u201d Thompson told this masthead from his Florida base, ahead of this week\u2019s US Open.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s easy to take it for granted. I think I\u2019m actually pretty good at being in the moment, but it\u2019s pretty special.\u201d<\/p>\n
Thompson, 29, is a success story, although possibly underappreciated in Australia\u2019s crowded sporting landscape. Even as a top-20 junior more than a decade ago, he doubted his ability to make it on the ultra-competitive men\u2019s tour because he was barely 170 centimetres tall and super skinny.<\/p>\n
He has since grown to 183cm and a more-robust 82 kilograms, and those doubts have long since evaporated \u2013 with good reason.<\/p>\n
Thompson broke into the men\u2019s top 100 in early 2016, and has spent most of the seven years since with a double-digit ranking, scaling as high as No.43 in mid-2019. That number is tennis\u2019 limbo bar; keep yourself below it, and you\u2019re almost guaranteed entry into the four grand slams.<\/p>\n
To do so, Thompson first had to negotiate the barbarity of the sport\u2019s lower tiers, including dodgy accommodation \u2013 at one stop in Romania, he stayed somewhere without a shower head \u2013 no spectators and token prizemoney.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Jordan Thompson faced tennis legend Novak Djokovic at Wimbledon.<\/span>Credit: <\/span>Getty Images<\/cite><\/p>\n
Being an Australian player also means spending roughly 10 months of the year overseas, which is why he bought a home in Florida as soon as success afforded him the privilege.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt [life on the tennis fringe] sucks. When you first leave; that\u2019s probably the hardest thing \u2013 but then, I guess, you get used to it,\u201d Thompson said. \u201cI leave pretty much from the Australian Open until the end of October. I don\u2019t think people get [what you have to do]. They think it\u2019s glamorous, but it\u2019s certainly not glamorous, especially when you get flight delays, lose your bags, and you\u2019re staying in a s—hole.\u201d<\/p>\n
As much as anything else, Thompson needed to come to terms with the realities of tour life. Translation: be prepared to lose more than you win, even as one of the best 50-odd players on the planet.<\/p>\n
The Sydneysider\u2019s career ATP Tour record, which excludes results on the lesser Challenger and Futures circuits, entering the boisterous New York slam is 102 wins versus 129 defeats, including a 16:17 record this season.<\/p>\n
Who the Australian men play in round one of the US Open this week<\/h3>\n
- \n
- Jordan Thompson (ranked 50) v Boticvan De Zandschulp<\/em> (55), of the Netherlands.<\/li>\n
- Jason Kubler (86) v Matteo Arnaldi<\/em> (62), of Italy.<\/li>\n
- Thanasi Kokkinakis (77) v Yu Hsiou Hsu<\/em> (237), of Chinese Taipei (Taiwan).<\/li>\n
- Aleksandar Vukic (51) v\u00a0 Alexander Zverev<\/em> (12), of Germany.<\/li>\n
- Max Purcell (47) v Christopher O\u2019Connell (68).<\/li>\n
- Alex de Minaur (13) v Timofey Skatov<\/em> (128), of Kazakhstan.<\/li>\n
- Rinky Hijikata (111) v Pavel Kotov<\/em> (97), born in Russia.<\/li>\n
- Alexei Popyrin (40) v Dominic Stricker<\/em> (127), of Switzerland.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s brutal,\u201d he said. \u201cI read a stat before, where only the top 30 or 40 guys have winning percentages, like points-wise, in the year, so even when you\u2019re winning matches, you\u2019re losing more points [within those matches]. It\u2019s the most messed-up sport ever.\u201d<\/p>\n
Thompson is part of an Australian uprising this year. Even without the injured Nick Kyrgios, he will be one of eight Australians starting the US Open in the top 100. Alex de Minaur, Alexei Popyrin, Max Purcell, Aleks Vukic, Chris O\u2019Connell, Thanasi Kokkinakis and Jason Kubler are the others.<\/p>\n
Rinky Hijikata and James Duckworth are barely outside, while Kyrgios has a protected ranking of No.21.<\/p>\n
Thompson was outside the top 50 for about 30 months before returning there last week as reward for qualifying then making the round of 32 at Cincinnati, where he pinched a set off world No.1 Alcaraz.<\/p>\n
Thompson also won a set off top-20 star Cameron Norrie in June, but will forever remember this year for his Wimbledon centre court stoush with Djokovic. Last year, he locked horns with the \u201cKing of Clay\u201d, Rafael Nadal, at the French Open.<\/p>\n
Thompson knew what he was getting into against Djokovic.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt could be a dream, or could be a nightmare. I\u2019ve seen a few guys have nightmares out there against him,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
He and his coach, the zany but highly regarded Marinko Matosevic, got straight to the point while concocting their strategy.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Jordan Thompson serves to Carlos Alcaraz in Ohio.<\/span>Credit: <\/span>Getty<\/cite><\/p>\n
\u201cWe both knew that if I played my normal game; I was going to get killed,\u201d Thompson said. \u201cWe went through all the stats, and it was pretty clear that I had to try and change drastically to try and win. I mean, my best chance that day was in tiebreakers. I wasn\u2019t that far away from getting two of them.\u201d<\/p>\n
Thompson walked off the court in defeat, but in many ways, it was one of his finest hours. Seven-time Wimbledon champion Djokovic had to fight hard to eventually triumph, 6-3, 7-6 (7-4), 7-5, with Thompson transforming into a serve-volleyer for the occasion.<\/p>\n
\u201cLosing three, six and five to the greatest ever \u2013 I took a lot of confidence from that, especially playing a style that I wouldn\u2019t generally go about my tennis [with],\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Djokovic even admitted afterwards he struggled at times to read Thompson\u2019s searing serve. It was a nod to the extensive work the Australian did as a child with his dad, former professional tennis player Steve, who runs the Mills Park Tennis Centre in Asquith, north-west of Sydney.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a unique club, [located] at the end of a cul-de-sac, and there\u2019s a long driveway,\u201d Thompson said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt goes straight through the centre of the cul-de-sac, then there\u2019s just bush. You go to the right, and there are 10 tennis courts. If you hit a ball over the fence; it\u2019s with either a wallaby, koala or snake.\u201d<\/p>\n
Thompson, at his dad\u2019s instruction, developed a \u201cfast arm\u201d, which started with trying to hit accurate serves as hard as possible with spin, sometimes using rope. Those early lessons helped pay plenty of bills for him in the years that followed.<\/p>\n
Matosevic and Thompson senior were both in Florida for Thompson\u2019s final preparations before heading to Flushing Meadows for the US Open, where he reached the final 16 in a career-best grand slam result in 2020.<\/p>\n
His form in the second half of this year, in particular, has buoyed expectations he can do some damage.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve played some good matches at the US Open, and a lot of five-setters, so I\u2019ve just got to put it all together in a slam,\u201d Thompson said.<\/p>\n
\u201cObviously, I had a tough draw at Wimbledon [Djokovic], and I\u2019m hoping for a better one at the US Open. I\u2019m top 50 at the moment, but I\u2019m trying to get to that top 32, so I can get seeded at the slams. That\u2019s the next goal.\u201d<\/p>\n
- Jason Kubler (86) v Matteo Arnaldi<\/em> (62), of Italy.<\/li>\n
- Jordan Thompson (ranked 50) v Boticvan De Zandschulp<\/em> (55), of the Netherlands.<\/li>\n