JORDAN Thompson has broken a four-game losing streak by making it through to the second round of the Astana Open in Nur-Saltan, Kazakhstan. The Australian is seeded eighth at the ATP 250 event, and saw off the in-form Cameron Norrie to come from behind and win 5-7 7-6 6-2.

The match lasted two hours and 41 minutes with the 60th ranked Thompson and 70th ranked Norrie neck-and-neck for the most part before Thompson pulled away in the final set. Both players served four aces, but the Brit produced five double faults to two in the match, taking out the first set off the back of a strong serving percentage. By contrast, Thompson could only win 43 per cent of his second serve points in the set and was broken twice.

Thompson lifted his rate after that, increasing his overall serving efficiency as Norrie’s second serve percentage dropped to 41 per cent. The pair went to a tiebreaker and looked liked Norrie might come away with the straight sets win, but Thompson got there in the end with an 8-6 tiebreak victory. From there, Thompson stormed to victory taking the only two break points produced in the deciding set, and despite only having a 45 per cent serving efficiency, won 16 of his 22 points on serve, compared to Norrie’s nine of 20.

Meanwhile American duo, Tommy Paul and Frances Tiafoe both advanced through to the second round of the Astana Open with straight sets wins. The seventh seed Paul won 7-6 6-3 over Stefano Travaglia, winning 81 per cent of his first serve points and saving six of eight break point opportunities, whilst Travaglia won just 43 per cent off his second serve, and was broken four times in the 95-minute match.

Tiafoe turned the tables on a loss to Frenchman Corentin Moutet from a fortnight ago in Sardinia to get up in an easy 6-3 6-2 victory in 82 minutes. The American served five aces and won 69 and 60 per cent of his first and second serve points. Moutet could only break even for half of each, serving four double faults to one ace and only managed the one break to Tiafoe’s four.

“I played really well tonight,” Tiafoe said post-match. “I was really intense from the beginning… I am just happy I came and took care of business.”

Tiafoe now takes on Serbian Miomir Kecmanovic in the second round with the second seed receiving a bye from the Round of 32, a clash that Tiafoe is looking for to in a couple of days.

“[Miomir] is one of my better friends on Tour,” Tiafoe said. “He is a year younger than me and we have had a couple of good matches before. He has been playing really good. He is around his career high right now and I am climbing back. Obviously, we wouldn’t usually play in the second round of an ATP 250, but it is the way it is right now. It is going to be a really good match.”

Meanwhile in the other matches, veteran Spaniard Fernando Verdasco won 6-4 7-5 against James Duckworth to set up a second consecutive match with an Australian. Verdasco plays fourth seed John Millman in the Round of 16. In the other completed match, Radu Albot knocked out the first home nation hope, coming from behind to defeat Kazakhstan wildcard Dmitry Popko 4-6 6-4 6-4 in two hours and 51 minutes.

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