Wimbledon 2023: Jordan Thompson claws back in five, but sets up clash with Novak Djokovic

Sydneysider Jordan Thompson gave a stirring comeback from two sets to love down to progress through to the second round of Wimbledon.

Jordan Thompson celebrates winning match point against Brandon Nakashima of the United States. Picture: Getty Images.

Jordan Thompson gave a stirring comeback from two sets to love down to progress through to the second round of Wimbledon, but his next opponent may not give him an inch to claw back into the match.

In an opening match on the first day of Wimbledon which took more than five hours- due to a rain delay – Thompson fought back to overcome American Brandon Nakashima 2-6, 2-6, 6-4, 7-6, 6-3.

Sydneysider Thompson, will face now face defending champion and hot Championship favourite Novak Djokovic – once the Serbian wins his centre court match later this morning.

Djokovic appeared in to be in tight control of his match against Pedro Cachin but the scoreline didn’t tell the story of the rain, and the efforts to dry the grass court.

After the light rain halted play, Djokovic wasn’t happy with the slipperiness at the baseline and he tried to speed up the drying process by emerging from the locker room with a towel to mop up pools of water, much to the delight of the sold out centre court crowd.

Thompson’s hard fought victory came fresh off the sudden withdrawal of the drama king and last year’s finalist Nick Kyrgios – who waited until the eve of the championship start to reveal on wrist injury – and a loss by Max Purcell in a quick straight sets defeat.

Watching the action from the packed stands at SW19 on Monday were secret undercover police ready to quickly react to any attempt of protest by ecowarriors.

British Culture Secretary Lucy Frazer said of the security crackdown: “I don‘t think it’s appropriate that Just Stop Oil are ruining sporting events”.

Jordan Thompson wins match point against Brandon Nakashima. Picture: Getty Images.

Brandon Nakashima plays a backhand against Jordan Thompson. Picture: Getty Images.

The protesters managed to get onto the wicket square on the first day of the second Ashes test at Lord’s as well as disrupt recent snooker and rugby events.

Ball boys and ball girls have been told to move away from any protest action and to leave any interventions to court side security personnel.

Newly introduced British laws have given the police additional powers to intervene in the case of public protests.

”Of course I can‘t guarantee that nothing is going to happen, but what I am confident about is the police understand the importance of these events going ahead and we have given them the powers to act,’’ Ms Frazer said.

On court three Australia’s doubles star Matt Purcell struggled in his quest to go deep in the singles draw in his third Wimbledon attempt, suffering a straight sets loss to number seven seed Andrey Rublev, of Russia.

Purcell, 25, had pushed Rublev in the second set, coming into the net and throwing Rublev off his rhythm, and got to 5-2 up, but inexplicably the Sydneysider then lost 15 points in succession to lose the set 7-5.

The Russian then enjoyed an early break in the third set to comfortably finish off the match 6-3, 7-5, 6-4.

Eight time Wimbledon victory Roger Federer will be honoured before the start of play on Tuesday with a special ceremony on centre court.

Wimbledon chief executive Sally Bolton said Federer, a 20 time grand slam winner, would be honoured “as the man holding the most gentlemen‘s singles titles here“.

She said: ”We‘ll have a moment just to celebrate his achievements and to say thank you for all the memories.’’

Serena Williams, who also retired last year with seven Wimbledon singles titles has been unable to attend the Championship for a similar honour because she is pregnant with her second child.