Thompson 'shows fight' to outlast Shang & reach Atlanta final

Jordan Thompson advanced to the fourth tour-level final of his career Saturday at the Atlanta Open, where he overcame #NextGenATP 19-year-old Shang Juncheng 6-3, 4-6, 6-3.

Should the Australian go one step further and claim his second tour-level title — after his Los Cabos triumph in in February — the 30-year-old would enter the Top 30 of the PIF ATP Rankings for the first time in his career.

“I served really well today. I only was broken one time, held off a couple of games. I felt like my serve really kept me in it,” said Thompson, who struck 13 aces and made 75 per cent of his first serves, compared to Shang’s 61 per cent, according to Infosys ATP Stats.

The fourth seed found great success when serving to Shang’s body, making it difficult for the lefty to attack early in rallies. Thompson was rock solid from the baseline throughout the two-hour, 21-minute match, easily transitioning from defence to offence and remaining the more consistent player in the latter stages of the match.

The Sydney native yesterday survived the longest match in Atlanta tournament history, a three-hour, three-minute marathon against Alejandro Davidovich Fokina. Despite the short recovery, Thompson quickly rebounded to avenge this year's Indian Wells loss to Shang and level their Lexus ATP Head2Head series at 1-1.

“I don’t know how I recovered from yesterday, but I showed some fight,” Thompson said.

The Aussie will face Yoshihito Nishioka or Arthur Rinderknech in Sunday’s final.