Alex de Minaur avenged as tennis world stunned by 'crazy' Jordan Thompson comeback

Jordan Thompson has gotten some revenge over American teenager Alex Michelsen at the Los Cabos Open, just 24 hours after the 19-year-old took down Alex de Minaur. Michelsen looked like enjoying a remarkable 48 hours in Mexico, beating World No.9 de Minaur on Thursday before he was on the cusp of beating World No.40 Thompson on Friday.

But Thompson staged a remarkable comeback from a set and break down in the third to win 0-6 7-6 (7-1) 7-5 to advance to the semis. Thompson has started the year in brilliant form, and continued his run against Michelsen on Friday despite being down 6-0 3-0 after nine games.

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The American blitzed Thompson in the first set, before the Aussie took the second in a tiebreaker. That came after Michelsen had three match points at 6-5, with Thompson saving them all. Michelson grabbed a vital break of serve early in the third set, but Thompson broke back to get it to 5-5, before winning the match with another break while up 6-5.

After tallying a career-best 15 wins at ATP level wins last season, the 29-year-old has already recorded 11 victories so far in 2024. Thompson had dispatched American qualifier Emilio Nava 7-6 (7-5) 6-3 on Thursday to advance to the quarters.

Jordan Thompson gets revenge after Alex de Minaur loss

Thompson has surged into the world's top 40 for the first time in his career and was at No.36 in the live rankings after his win over Michelsen. De Minaur has also been in a rich vein of form to start 2024 and has risen to a career-high ranking of No.9. But he appeared tired and jet-lagged on Thursday, going down 4-6 1-6.

The shock loss came after the Aussie No.1 had reached the final at the Rotterdam Open, where he lost to Jannik Sinner for the seventh time in seven meetings with the Italian. De Minaur flew straight to Mexico to begin his campaign in Los Cabos, and the tight turnaround appeared to affect him.

The Aussie is now in danger of falling out of the top 10 after he'd only just surged to a career-high mark of World No.9. Because de Minaur made the final of the ATP 500 event last year, he will lose a bag of points for going out in the second round.

"I think I played about as well as I could," Michelsen said after beating de Minaur to secure his first top-10 win on Thursday. "That's something to remember for sure."

Thanasi Kokkinakis bounces back after rough start to 2024

Thanasi Kokkinakis had also advanced to the quarters on Thursday to take on Alexander Zverev, securing back-to-back wins over top-60 opponents. The South Australian beat World No.42 Dan Evans 6-4 6-2 in a brilliant display.

The win, which took just over two hours, was the Australian's second in a row against a British opponent. He beat World No.53 Jack Draper earlier in the week, and advanced to his first ATP tour-level quarter-final since the start of 2023.

Evans hit three double faults during the match, while Kokkinakis had the better of the clutch moments and saved four out of the five break points against him. The Australian now has three wins over Evans in his career.

Three other Aussies in Max Purcell, Rinky Hijikata and Aleksandar Vukic also bowed out on the same day as de Minaur. Purcell went down 6-3 6-3 to Portugal's Nuno Borges, while Hijikata lost 6-3 4-6 6-4 to qualifier Aleksandar Kovacevic. Vukic's loss was far more lop-sided after he was dispatched 6-3 6-0 by Greek No.2 seed Stefanos Tsitsipas.

with AAP

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