Rafael Nadal faced his first major test since returning to the world circuit when the Iberian fell sharply against Jordan Thompson on an off day. The former ATP leader, the Spaniard missed three match points and lost dramatically to qualify for the semifinals of the tournament in Brisbane (category 250), the score 5-7, 7-6(6), 6-3.

Jordan Thompson defeated Rafael Nadal after an exciting match

Nadal (672 ATP and 37 years old) and Thompson (55 ATP and 29 years old) arranged a fantastic match, perhaps the most intense and spectacular this year and the debut of the season.

The match at the Pat Rafter Arena was dominated by balance, Jordan managed to defend fantastically and respond to many of the Iberian’s attacks.

The first set helped Rafa in overtime, the score 7-5. It was a stretch that lasted an hour and 11 minutes.

The match continued in the same vein: hard rallies, deep shots that alternated with short ones, outside serves, aces and a lot of winning shots.

If there were three breaks in the first set (two on the side of the Iberian), then the second set went to a tie-break without any, not before Nadal missed a match point with a score of 5-4 on the opponent’s serve.

The tiebreaker continued, like the entire match: drama and twists.

The Spaniard led 3-0, had two more match points at 6-4, but inexplicably dropped a set that would have sent him straight to the dressing room and a press conference.

The Jordanian fighter canceled three match points against the one who did not give him a set in the previous two face-to-face meetings.

The Australian served flawlessly for most of the match and had the weapons to destabilize his much more famous opponent in his defense and goalkeeping.

It was very clear that Jordan is a good doubles player: he covered the net area well and served many good shots from Nadal.

He constantly put pressure on Rafa with his position on the return: on the second serve, Jordan waited for the ball with his feet on the court, and the intention was clear: to “steal” as much reaction time as possible from the opponent.

Jordan’s Sisyphean work paid off and the Australian made it 2-1 in the decider.

It was a little easier from there, with Rafa calling for a medical timeout near the end of the round and Thompson not slowing down. In these coordinates, he reached 5-2 in favor of Jordan.

With not much time left, the Iberian won his serve again and a gutsy Jordan won the opening game for a big win (perhaps the most important of his career) against the 22-time Grand Slam winner.

The epic match in Brisbane lasted three hours and 25 minutes and ended at midnight local time.

The last point of the gameonly from Jordan Thompson’s point of view: the intensity, drama and joy of the Aussie fans:

Know:

• After the circuit in Brisbane, Rafael Nadal will climb to 221 in the world rankings from next week, he will be at 451 ATP.

• It remains to be seen how significant or not the medical issues that forced the Iberian to ask for a medical time-out in the second half of the decider match. The next tournament in which Rafa would participate is the Australian Open.

• Jordan Thompson, on the other hand, is ranked 47th in the ATP Live rankings, a jump of eight places after qualifying for the semifinals in Brisbane.

ATP Brisbane, semi-finals

The ATP Brisbane semi-finals will take place on Saturday and can be watched live on Digisport channels.

Runa Holger (1) – Roman Safiullin (39 ATP)

Jordan Thompson (55 ATP) – Grigor Dimitrov (2)

The tournament in Brisbane will be held from December 31 to January 7. It is part of the ATP 250 category, has a total prize pool of US$739,945, and there will be 32 players in the main singles at the start, with Kei Nishikori (in 2019) as the defending champion.

Australian Open 2024 will be held from January 14 to 28 in Melbourne.