Jordan Thompson defeats Benjamin Bonzi in five sets at Wimbledon second round
With Davis Cup captain Lleyton Hewitt, the last Australian man to win at Wimbledon, watching on, Thompson beat Benjamin Bonzi 7-5, 6-7 (7), 4-6, 6-2, 6-4 in just under four hours.
The Sydneysider came into this championship with a large box of painkillers and a thick black brace for his back, and wondered aloud how his body would hold up after coming from two sets down to defeat Vít Kopřiva in the first round.
He made it onto court 15 to find 31-year-old Bonzi facing him, the 64th-ranked Frenchman who shocked last year's semi-finalist Daniil Medvedev in the first round.
At 5-5 in the first set, Thompson set up two set points with a pair of superb volleys. Having broken, he then came back from 0-30 on his own serve before taking the set with a sweet passing shot.
But Bonzi changed his game, driving Thompson back to limit the doubles ace's chance to show his volleying prowess. The second set went with serve, then Bonzi won five successive points to seize control of the tiebreak.
He followed up with a break at 3-3 in the third, from which he served out.
At that stage Thompson looked done. But more than most he is a player that leaves it all out there. In the fourth set he broke at 3-2, and held on to level the tie.
The final set could have gone either way as both men battled fatigue and the setting sun. Each had break-point chances. Crucially, at 5-5, with a tiebreak looming, Thompson held, then broke.
He next meets Luciano Darderi, ranked 59, or Arthur Fery, the lowly ranked Englishman who upset Alexei Popyrin in the first round.
Victory would take Thompson into the second week and a last-16 place for the first time in his ninth visit to Wimbledon.
AAP
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