Australian tennis teen Jordan Thompson has fallen just short of a massive upset in his clash with world No.9 Richard Gasquet at the AAMI Classic at Melbourne’s Kooyong.
The Frenchman was pushed to the final point of their opening match before beating 19-year-old Thompson 7-5 3-6 7-6 (7-4).
Thompson, ranked No.321, was serving for the match at 5-3 but couldn’t close it out despite three successive aces when down 40-0.
He then had two match points at 5-4 but again missed his opportunity.
A double fault by the Sydneysider then gave Gasquet a break in the tie-break, which he used to wrap up the result.
Thompson was handed his start into the invitation eight-man field following the withdrawal of defending champion Lleyton Hewitt, who pulled out citing fatigue and his Brisbane International title win.
He has already had a stunning start to the year after earning entry to next week’s Australian Open by winning the wildcard play-off.
In earlier matches on Wednesday, Japan No.1 Kei Nishikori showed he was on track to improve his best grand slam showing after he overcame Bulgarian No.23 Grigor Dimitrov 7-6 (7-5) 6-4.
The world No.17 was a surprise quarter-finalist at Melbourne Park in 2012 and said he wanted to at least equal that result.
“I think I’m a much better player now,” Nishikori said.
“My goal is to go quarter finals or semis in the slams and I feel at home here because I love to play in Australia so hopefully I can go more than semi-finals this year.”
World No.7 Czech Tomas Berdych took some time to find his range before securing a opening win.
He trailed Spaniard Fernando Verdasco 5-2 in the first set but fought back to take it 7-5 before cruising through the second 6-2.
“It didn’t start well for me from the beginning but I was able to get better and I was finding the rhythm,” he said.
“I think it was a solid start.”
The tournament lost its headline act with the withdrawal of defending champion and top-ranked Australian Hewitt following his title win over Roger Federer.
Hewitt will play world No.4 Brit Andy Murray in an exhibition match on Friday night.
