Two months after a heartbreaking loss in the Wimbledon final, Australians Jordan Thompson and Max Purcell secured their first Grand Slam title coupled with a stunning, if dramatic, victory in the US Open doubles final in New York.
The first Australian team since Mark Woodforde and Todd Woodbridge in 1996 to reach the US Open final, the Australians defeated the German combination of Tim Puetz and Kevin Krawietz 6-4 7-6 (4), but only after a late nerve attack had overcome in the play.
After sliding an ace wide of the advantage court to seize the triumph, Purcell smashed the ball into the stands, jumped into his mate’s arms and planted a kiss on Thompson’s bearded cheek.
After shaking hands with his rivals, Purcell celebrated in a somewhat crude manner when he suggested to his box that it was a win that required a significant ticker to conclude. He had reason to be relieved after a poor match when serving for the title at 6-4 5-4.
“It definitely felt better serving out the tiebreak than it did in the 5-4 match,” said Purcell, who won the 2022 Wimbledon doubles title with Matt Ebden.
It is an understatement to suggest the Australians, who booked a place in the season-ending ATP Tour Finals championships in Turin in November, were devastated after their Wimbledon loss.
Thompson had a thousand-yard stare as he tried to explain how they had fallen 6-7 (7) 7-6 (8) 7-6 (9) to Harri Heliovaara and Henry Patten in a decider that lasted 2 hours and 49 minutes lasted, despite not facing a break point for the entire decider.
Purcell arrived at a press conference with a few beers and declared with certainty that this would not be his last for the evening, as they reflected on what had gone wrong – very little, in reality, apart from failing to get three match points – at the field. .
“It just sucks,” Thompson said at the time.
But the 30-year-old, who also reached the last 16 of the singles when defeated by Alex de Minaur,
“It feels great to be a Grand Slam champion, especially after what happened at Wimbledon,” he said.
“It got a bit tense there at the end, with match points, but we persevered and we got there in the end.”
The Australians will share A$1.12 million for winning the title and have risen to third place in the tour race this season.
Thompson had already pocketed almost A$500,000 after reaching the last 16 at the US Open for the second time in his career.
In the opening game of the final, the Australians had opportunities on the serve of Tim Puetz, who made a double fault twice in succession in a clear sign of nerves.
Although they couldn’t capitalize on those opportunities, they hit on their third break point of Puetz’s second service game as they secured the only break for an opening set in which they were not challenged in their own service games.
Just like in the first set, the Australians managed to secure a service break in the fifth game of the second set by using a few powerful passing strokes to catch an error by the German combination.
The Australians had a pair of match points on the Krawietz serve at 5-3 in the second set before Purcell, who had served well in the final, hit a pair of double faults and then scored a smash to drop serve to love.
Another chance to break was begging at 5-all, but after Thompson, who was the best player on the field after his disappointment at the All England Club, was able to force a tiebreak, the Australians were the steadier combination in the tiebreak.
