Jordan Thompson advanced to the fourth tour-level final of his career Saturday at the Atlanta Open, where he overcame #NextGenATP 19-year-old Shang Juncheng 6-3, 4-6, 6-3.
Should the Australian go one step further and claim his second tour-level title — after his Los Cabos triumph in in February — the 30-year-old would enter the Top 30 of the PIF ATP Rankings for the first time in his career.
“I served really well today. I only was broken one time, held off a couple of games. I felt like my serve really kept me in it,” said Thompson, who struck 13 aces and made 75 per cent of his first serves, compared to Shang’s 61 per cent, according to Infosys ATP Stats.
[ATP APP]The fourth seed found great success when serving to Shang’s body, making it difficult for the lefty to attack early in rallies. Thompson was rock solid from the baseline throughout the two-hour, 21-minute match, easily transitioning from defence to offence and remaining the more consistent player in the latter stages of the match.
The Sydney native yesterday survived the longest match in Atlanta tournament history, a three-hour, three-minute marathon against Alejandro Davidovich Fokina. Despite the short recovery, Thompson quickly rebounded to avenge this year's Indian Wells loss to Shang and level their Lexus ATP Head2Head series at 1-1.
“I don’t know how I recovered from yesterday, but I showed some fight,” Thompson said.
The Aussie will face Yoshihito Nishioka, who used two sneak attacks to net in the final game of the match to break Arthur Rinderknech to close out a 6-3, 4-6, 6-4 win. Nishioka claimed four breaks of serve and defended his own second serve resolutely, winning 57 per cent of second-serve points.
“It was very tough to break his serve, which always kept me under pressure on my own serve,” said the Japanese World No. 86, who spotted the Frenchman 10 inches in height. “In the final [against Thompson] I’m expecting tough games with long rallies. It’s going to be a mental battle for sure.”
Nishioka claimed his first Top 30 win of the year against Frances Tiafoe in the quarter-finals. He advances to his sixth ATP Tour final (2-3), all of which have been on hard courts.
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