Thompson 'shows fight' to outlast Shang reach Atlanta final

pa href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/jordan-thompson/tc61/overview'Jordan Thompson/a advanced to the fourth tour-level final of his career Saturday at the a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/tournaments/atlanta/6116/overview'Atlanta Open/a, where he overcame #NextGenATP 19-year-old a href="https://www.atptour.com/en/players/juncheng-shang/s0re/overview"Shang Juncheng/a 6-3, 4-6, 6-3./p

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

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ldquo;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,rdquo; said Thompson, who struck 13 aces and made 75 per cent of his first serves, compared to Shangrsquo;s 61 per cent, according to Infosys ATP Stats./p

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The fourth seed found great success when serving to Shangrsquo;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./p

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The Sydney native yesterday survived the longest match in Atlanta tournament history, a three-hour, three-minute marathon against a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/alejandro-davidovich-fokina/dh50/overview'Alejandro Davidovich Fokina/a. 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./p

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ldquo;I donrsquo;t know how I recovered from yesterday, but I showed some fight,rdquo; Thompson said./p

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The Aussie will face a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/yoshihito-nishioka/n732/overview'Yoshihito Nishioka/a, who used two sneak attacks to net in the final game of the match to break a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/arthur-rinderknech/rc91/overview'Arthur Rinderknech/a to close out a 6-3, 4-6, 6-4 win. Nishioka claimed four breaks of serve and defended his own second serve resolutely, winning 57 per cent of second-serve points./p

pldquo;It was very tough to break his serve, which always kept me under pressure on my own serve,rdquo; said the Japanese World No. 86, who spotted the Frenchman 10 inches in height. ldquo;In the final [against Thompson] Irsquo;m expecting tough games with long rallies. Itrsquo;s going to be a mental battle for sure.rdquo;/p

pNishioka claimed his first Top 30 win of the year against a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/frances-tiafoe/td51/overview'Frances Tiafoe/a in the quarter-finals. He advances to his sixth ATP Tour final (2-3), all of which have been on hard courts./p

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