By Richard Pagliaro | @Tennis_Now | Monday, December 30, 2024
Photo: Chris Hyde/Getty
Up for starter status at The Happy Slam, Aussie Jordan Thompson started the new season positively.
Thompson rallied behind the former Wimbledon finalist Matteo Berrettini 3-6, 6-3, 6-4 in his opening match in Brisbane today.
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World number 26 Thompson, who was knocked out Rafael Nadal in the Brisbane quarter-finals last January, advanced to a second-round rematch against the American Alex Michelsenwho saved a match point by ending the Aussie Christopher O’Connell 6-4, 4-6, 7-6(10).
Thompson says the toughest test of the 2025 season is the fact that it starts in 2024 giving players, particularly the Aussies, too little rest.
“(The season) feels like two seconds,” Thompson said with a smile. “Yeah, it’s complicated, especially for us Aussies. We basically leave after the Australian Open and don’t come back until the Davis Cup is over. The season is so long. We come back at the end of November.
“Yeah, we’re gone for 10, 11 months. It’s like we get three weeks off if you play Davis Cup. That’s fantastic. Then you force them to push for an earlier start.”
Thompson tore up the schedule as “a joke.”
“I don’t know how the ’25 to ’24 season starts. I mean, it’s a joke,” Thompson said. “We have to play next week. There are a lot of things in our sport that need a bit of cleaning up right now.”
