Rafa Nadal in Australian Open scare after Aussie Jordan Thompson's epic feat

Rafa Nadal has sent a scare throughout the tennis world having admitted he felt a pain in his hip during his loss to Jordan Thompson in the Brisbane International. Aussie Thompson secured one of the biggest wins of his tennis career having defeated Nadal in a three-set thriller.

Thompson saved three match points and was able to hang on as he took Nadal further and further into the night. And Thompson prevailed in front of an adoring home crowd.

GOAT DEBATE: Alex de Minaur cuts down Roger Federer and Rafa Nadal

'NO RESPECT': Nick Kyrgios' staggering call after de Minaur beat Djokovic

Thompson would have been thrilled with his victory, but the tennis world watched on in shock as Nadal called for the trainer and gestured at his troublesome hip. His hip injury, sustained at the 2023 Australian Open, kept him out for the remainder of the previous season.

Nadal didn't show too many signs of discomfort and was humble after the match to hand Thompson his moment in victory. But the Spaniard did admit he felt pain in the hip after the match and he would need to see what this meant leading into the Australian Open.

"Yeah, it is a very similar place to what happened last year, but different," Nadal said in his post-match press conference. "I feel more muscle, last year was tendon.

"For sure is not the same like last year at all because when it happened last year, I felt something drastic immediately. Today, I didn't feel anything. The only problem is because the place is the same, you are a little bit more scared than usual. I hope is not important and I hope to have the chance to be practising next week and to play Melbourne. Honestly, I am not 100 per cent sure of anything now."

The tennis world reacted to the scenes in shock with Nadal only three matches back into his comeback, which could be his final year of his illustrious career.

Nadal was hoping the injury was just fatigue after playing his first two competitive matches in a row for nearly a year. "From this perspective, you don't know all the information that I have," he told reporters.

"The only thing that probably you see is I have been playing very well the last two matches. It's true, I have been playing well. A lot of things can be happening in a body like my body after a year without playing tennis. So hopefully it is just that, just a muscle that is supercharged ... if that's the thing, everything perfect."

Jordan Thompson delivers epic in Aus Open warm-up

While it was a tough night for Nadal, Thompson was thrilled to have pulled off one of the best wins of his career against a 22-time grand slam champion. Nadal approached Thompson on his side of the net after the loss to embrace and the Aussie admitted defeating one of his idols growing up was a career highlight.

"He was one of my idols growing up" Thompson said. "I loved Lleyton (Hewitt), loved Andy Murray, loved Rafa. It was special to share the court again and to take him down was a whole other feeling."

The 29-year-old's win in Brisbane marked the second huge win for an Aussie this week after Alex de Minaur's defeated World No.1 Novak Djokovic in the United Cup on Wednesday. "Unreal. Aussies in Australia playing good tennis, taking down good names, got to be good for the country," Thompson said.

Sign up to our newsletter and score the biggest sport stories of the week.