Jordan Thompson is one match away from making his grand slam debut after upsetting John-Patrick Smith at the Australian Open wildcard playoff.

Thompson beat top seed John-Patrick Smith 7-6 6-4 2-6 6-3 to tee up a date with last year’s playoff winner Ben Mitchell for the coveted wildcard and super pay day.

In his debut year on the second-tier Challenger and Futures circuit, Thompson will pocket more than his career earnings simply by turning up to his round-one match at the Open if he wins.

“It’s been on my mind a bit,” Thompson said of the money.

“If I won, it’d take the pressure off but it’s not the most important thing.”

Thompson started unranked at season’s start and has surged to just outside the top 300.

“I didn’t have a ranking at the start of the year so the bar wasn’t set too high … to play in this match is a real thrill,” he said.

He credits a strong serve and return, along with great court speed, as the key reasons for his run to the wildcard final.

Across the net will be Mitchell, who defeated former world junior No.1 Luke Saville 6-2 6-4 6-1 in the other semi.

Mitchell’s powerful cross-court forehand was his weapon of choice, denying Saville any chance to gain a foothold.

“I hung tough. I really feel like I’ve been winning the big points here – probably the biggest part of tennis – so that’s good,” Mitchell said.

After pocketing the 2013 wildcard, Mitchell lost an epic five-set Australian open match against countryman James Duckworth.

“I try and forget the match that I played because it was heartbreaking and took a while to get over,” he said earlier this week.

Mitchell will start favourite for the playoff final after dropping serve just twice all week.

The two reached the final in contrasting styles – Mitchell yet to drop a set for just over five hours on court while Thompson’s matches have all lasted three hours and four sets.

Both Mitchell and Thompson have two Futures titles to their name this year but have no competitive meetings.

The two are vying to join Australia’s automatic qualifiers Bernard Tomic, Lleyton Hewitt, Marinko Matosevic and Matthew Ebden in the first-round draw.

On Saturday, Casey Dellacqua will look to make the women’s final against Tammi Patterson while Arina Rodinova plays Viktorija Rajicic in the other semi-final.