Australian Open: Jordan airs his rage in first-round defeat

Jordan Thompson has put match officials in the spotlight after a tense five-set Australian Open loss to Argentine Nicolas Kicker

Jordan Thompson shows his frustration in his first-round loss. Picture: AAP.

Australian fighter Jordan Thompson has put match officials in the spotlight after a tense five-set Australian Open loss to Argentine Nicolas Kicker.

The 23-year-old voiced his displeasure at Russian chair umpire Anastasia Kosheleva’s controversial call to replay a point at a critical stage of the deciding set in his 6-3 6-1 4-6 3-6 6-3 defeat.

Up 2-0 in the final set, Thompson was hunting for another break and challenged a call to get it back to deuce on Kicker’s serve.

Hawk-Eye showed his forehand winner caught a large chunk of the line and, despite the Argentinian netting the ball, Kosheleva ordered the point be replayed.

“He missed it,” Thompson yelled at the match official, visually shocked by the call. “You guys never do your jobs, never.”

At the change of ends, he continued the verbal stoush: “Tell me he was going to make the ball, tell me that. You should get reviewed for that.”

Post-match, a frustrated Thompson refused to label the decision a “turning point” in the match, but admitted it “certainly didn’t help”.

“The way I saw it he even gave up on that ball, he had no intention of making it,” he said.

“He thought it was going out too, I reckon.”

The young Australian said the current replay system gave too much discretion to the match official.

“It’s up to the umpire, and I think that’s a real grey area,” Thompson said. “I think they’ve got to fix that.”

After digging his way out of a two-set hole, the third-ranked Australian eventually fell in three hours and 42 minutes.

A year ago, Thompson sprung his first home-slam upset, coming up trumps after going the distance with Portugal’s Joao Sousa.

After failing to convert a single breakpoint chance in the first two sets yesterday, Thompson pounced at 5-4 to steal the third. Smashing his racquet early the fourth seems to release some of the world No 99’s home-crowd jitters as he rattled off two breaks of serve to take it to a fifth. Thompson looked home and hosed after going up a break in the fifth, but the match slipped away when he was unable to convert six break points in an eight- game deuce at 2-all.

Australian women Ajla Tomljanovic and Lizette Cabrera also fell at the first hurdle.

Tomljanovic was unable to join boyfriend Nick Kyrgios in the second round, the 24-year-old falling 7-5 6-3 to former French Open finalist Lucie Safarova in one hour and 26 minutes.

Fellow women’s wildcard Cabrera followed Tomljanovic out the exit gates with a fighting 7-6 (7-3) 6-4 loss to Brazilian Beatriz Haddad Maia.

Tomljanovic, who cracked the top 50 in 2015, was on the back foot throughout against Safarova, with her first-serve percentage finishing at 50 per cent. The 29th-seeded Czech was cantering through the first set world No 107 Tomljanovic grabbed the break back, courtesy of a lucky let-cord, to make it 4-all.

But the former world No 5’s experience and class shone in crunch time, turning the screws on Tomljanovic’s serve at 5-all and shutting the door on the first set in 49 minutes.

Tomljanovic dug her way out of multiple breakpoint holes in consecutive service games to start the second, but was offering little resistance at the other end. As the double faults continued to pile up, seven for the match, Tomljanovic’s resolve eventually wilted with back-to-back breaks killing off her chances.

AAP