Jordan Thompson was at his best in the key moments during a 7-6 (0), 4-6, 7-6 (5) upset of second-seed Stefanos Tsitsipas in the second round of the BNP Paribas Open on Friday in Indian Wells, Calif.
Neither player broke serve in the first and third sets before Thompson cruised through the initial tiebreaker, then won four of the five points in the decisive tiebreaker.
Thompson, a 28-year-old Australian who is ranked 87th in the world, defeated one of the world’s top 10 players for just the second time in his career.
Thompson said, “It’s unreal. At a Masters 1000, in the (Indian Wells) Tennis Garden here. It’s one of my favorite tournaments, I think a lot of players’ favorite tournaments to play. To have a win like that is incredible. (I’m) really happy.”
Tsitsipas, a 24-year-old Greek player who reached the Australian Open final this year, finished with twice as many unforced errors as Thompson, 26-13. Thompson also had the edge in winners, 45-36.
“I wanted to take control of my service points,” Thompson said. “Obviously, I can’t do much about his, he’s a big guy and he’s got a great serve. I wasn’t finding too much rhythm there on return towards the end but snuck one out. I stayed aggressive on serve and very thankful that last ball went wide.”
In other second-round action, third-seeded Casper Ruud of Norway crushed Argentina’s Diego Schwartzman 6-2, 6-3, and 10th-seeded Cameron Norrie of Great Britain dominated Taiwanese qualifier Tung-Lin Wu 6-2, 6-4.
Finland’s Emil Ruusuvuori knocked out 22nd-seeded Roberto Bautista Agut of Spain 7-6 (5), 6-2, and Chilean qualifier Cristian Garin downed 29th-seeded Yoshihito Nishioka of Japan 6-4, 6-0. Belarus’ Ilya Ivashka advanced when the Netherlands’ Botic van de Zandschulp retired due to a sprained ankle while trailing 7-5, 3-2.
Australia’s Jason Kubler led 2-6, 7-6 (5), 3-0 when 21st-seeded Grigor Dimitrov of Bulgaria retired.
–Field Level Media
