Thompson shocks Hurkacz in biggest upset of 2024 US Open

Australia’s Jordan Thompson caused the biggest upset of the 2024 US Open so far on Thursday night in New York, with the world No.32 defeating No.7 seed Hubert Hurkacz in straight sets.

The win is Thompson’s biggest scalp in a Grand Slam, and means that for the first time in 27 years, Australia have four men through to the third round at the US Open.

Alex de Minaur, Alexei Popyrin and Chris O’Connell all advanced as well, while Tristan Schoolkate was unlucky not to make it a fifth Aussie in the round of 32.

Thompson returns brilliant to foil Hurkacz

Heading into their second-round match, Thompson was a $2.65 underdog to upset Hurkacz.

The 30-year-old had been having a career-best year, cracking the world’s top 30 for the first time with a title in Los Cabos and final in Atlanta in 2024.

Even so, Hurkacz — statistically the best server on the ATP Tour — was strongly favoured to win at $1.50 across most tennis betting sites.

However, Thompson returned brilliantly to stifle the Pole’s usually effective first serve.

Hurkacz was only able to add six aces to his tally of 903 aces in the past 52 weeks, with Thompson winning 43 percent of return points, including 38 percent on Hurkacz’s first serve.

The Aussie also served well himself, winning 42 of 51 first serves that he made. Add in his low unforced error count (17 to Hurkacz’s 34) and a healthy splash of winners, and the result was an impressive 7-6 (2), 6-1, 7-5 victory for Thompson.

De Minaur overcomes slow start

The Australian most likely to succeed at the US Open according to Ladbrokes Australia is Alex de Minaur.

He too navigated his second-round match in straight sets, but with a little more drama than he would have liked.

De Minaur is still recovering from a hip injury, which was evident to see when he fell behind 5-2 against Finland’s Otto Virtanen in the first set.

But the 10th seed found his feet and stormed back into the match, winning five games on the bounce to claim the opening set.

He then springboarded off this momentum to run through the second 6-1, before gritting out a hard-fought win in the third set, 7-6 (3).
De Minaur now sits in the 11th-equal line of betting to win the US Open, paying $67 to win his maiden Grand Slam.

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