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Home crowd favourite Jordan Thompson will look to turn around an ordinary form line in the first round of the Australian Open when he takes on clay court specialist Nicolas Kicker. Join The Roar for live scores from 11am (AEDT).
The Australian dropped to the back-end of the top 100 at the end of 2017 with some reasonably poor results following a second-round exit at the US Open.
Thompson never recovered from a loss in the fifth rubber of Australia’s Davis Cup semi-final against Belgium, following that up with only six victories across four tournaments (three of them Challengers) to end the year.
Two straight-set losses have started his 2018 and it means Thompson now sits dangerously close to dropping out of the top 100.
Neither of his losses were all that expected to start the year either, going down to Jared Donaldson in the first round of the Brisbane International and Paolo Lorenzi in Sydney.
Despite that, he pulled off a five-set win in the first round of last year’s Australian Open and has a knack for fighting even when a cause appears lost.
While that’s been lacking from his game, the match-up against Kicker should suit him.
Given the Argentinian is a clay court specialist, we can expect plenty of longer, grinding rallies throughout this match.
The 25-year-old will fight and work hard to simply keep the ball in play, which are two qualities Thompson has in spades. Yet, the power difference between the players should set them apart.
Like Thompson, Kicker has started his season off with back-to-back losses in straight sets, losing in Pune and again at the Canberra Challenger.
The Argentinian world No.96 did finish last year off strongly on clay, but has won just three matches throughout his career on the hard court, generally trying to avoid the surface. Unsurprisingly, this will be his first Australian Open and just his second hard court grand slam.
The pair has never played before this meeting and the winner will move on to play either Lukas Lacko or Milos Raonic in the second round on Thursday.
Prediction
Kicker will be well and truly out of his depth against a fighter like Thompson, whose serve will ensure he holds easily more often than not. There could be some long points, but Kicker will find it hard to beat Thompson’s pace and athleticism around the court.
Thompson in straight sets.
Be sure to join The Roar for live scores of this first-round match from 11am (AEDT) and don’t forget to add a comment below.