Australia’s Jordan Thompson defeated China’s Juncheng Shang 6-3, 4-6, 6-3 in a semifinal match Saturday to advance to the final round of the Atlanta Open at Atlantic Station.
As expected, Saturday’s match remained fiercely competitive. It’s only fair that one of the last matches at the Atlanta Open went to a third set to allow fans to remember the tournament.
This week, Thompson played in, and won, the longest match in tournament history [3 hours, 3 minutes], while also beating Shang in a 2-hour and 21-minute match. It is evident that Thompson is a competitor and knows how to fight.
Thompson lost to Shang earlier this year at Indian Wells, but in Atlanta, he won the rematch.
“That was a bad day at the office for me [losing to Shang], he played a good match that day,” Thompson said of his loss in March. “I just played a whole lot better today, you know, made a really good match of it and you know came down to the wire, eventually I got there.”
The entirety of the hard-fought semifinal centered on the shot that starts the point: the serve. In the first set, Thompson managed to break Shang twice, which allowed him to win the first set in less than an hour. Thompson also exercised a variety of different shots to change the pace of the ball. Whether it was hitting a down-the-line flat forehand, deep topspin rally-ball, or a short dropshot, Thompson eventually broke Shang down to secure the first set.
“I just feel like with my game style I need to be versatile,” Thompson said. “I need to be throwing guys off, you know, showing different looks every time.”
However, in the second set with Thompson serving, Shang showed resilience by immediately breaking him for the first time in the match. Going back and forth on winning serve throughout the set, Shang noticeably began winning the longer points, limiting his unforced errors and slowly tiring Thompson.
Toward the end of the second set, Shang looked revived and energized, letting out a “Yeah!” after several winning points. Shang went on to win the set 6-4, only testing Thompson’s fight. Breaking Thompson early was the key for Shang to get ahead, secure the second-set win and further the pressure.
Going into a third set with each having a set, both players weren’t backing down and went head-to-head. Each hit several aces, went forehand to forehand, and the points only grew longer.
It was 3-3 when Thompson held his serve to take control of the match, 4-3.
With Shang up to serve and having the chance to tie the final set 4-4, the crowd made it clear who they were in favor of: Shang. In between points, the crowd let out cheers of: “Let’s go Jerry!” Whether it was the motivation from the crowd against him or his own personal mindset, Thompson broke Shang to advance to 5-3 and eventually 6-3 to win the match.
During the match, Thompson showed the doubles player that he is by coming to the net almost every time to win off a volley while also applying pressure that forced Shang to miss. He played both offensively and defensively to knock Shang off to advance to the finals.
“[To win] An ATP title, I mean nothing to sneeze at. I mean I only have one of them,” Thompson said. “I’ve said it before, you know guys go through their whole career not playing in a final, to me another final, hopefully I can go all the way, but I won’t take it for granted.”
This will be Thompson’s first finals appearance at the Atlanta Open and second singles final of the year. He will play Yoshihito Nishioka, who defeated Arthur Rinderknech Saturday.
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