Australian Davis Cup star Jordan Thompson has sent one of America’s big hopes crashing out of the US Open with a spirited five-set first-round win in New York.
Thompson rallied from a service break down in the deciding set to seal a thrilling 6-2 7-6 (14-12) 1-6 5-7 6-4 victory over big-hitting 13th seed Jack Sock.
The three-hour, 56-minute effort earned Thompson a second-round meeting with unseeded Italian Thomas Fabbiano. Thompson squandered two match points deep in the fourth set and looked gone as he began to cramp and lost 11 straight points to go down a break at 3-4 in the deciding set.
But he rallied for one of the best wins of his career and his first at Flushing Meadows. He was a first-round loser in singles last year.
The victory was a repeat of his pivotal win over Sock during Australia’s Davis Cup quarter-final triumph over the USA in April in Brisbane and left his vanquished opponent shattered.
Asked what was the difference, surly Sock said: “Got broken at the end.” “Utter disappointment when you’re up two breaks in one set, a break in the fifth. Choke it all the way, so. Really sucks.”
The American – who hosted Thompson’s countryman and French Open doubles partner Nick Kyrgios for a pre-Open training block in Kansas – felt he should have won in four sets and rued losing the epic 26-point second-set tiebreaker.
“Maybe could have not been so topsy-turvy if I hold once in the second,” Sock said.
“I’m through in four the way it was going. He’s a tough player. Makes a lot of balls. Clearly was cramping pretty hard there in the end, running down everything.”