Two months after a heartbreaking loss in the Wimbledon final, Australians Jordan Thompson and Max Purcell have clinched their first grand slam title as a combination with a stellar, if dramatic, triumph 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 overcoming a bout of nerves late in the piece.
After sliding an ace wide to the advantage court to seize the triumph, Purcell thumped the ball into the stands, jumped into his mate’s arms and planted a kiss on Thompson’s bearded cheek.
After shaking the hands of his rivals, Purcell celebrated in a somewhat crude fashion when suggesting to his box that it was a victory that required significant ticker to close out. He had reason to be relieved after playing a poor game when serving for the title at 6-4 5-4.
“It definitely felt better serving out the tiebreaker than it did serving in the 5-4 game,” Purcell, who won the Wimbledon doubles title with Matt Ebden in 2022, said.
To suggest the Australians, who have booked a spot in the season-ending championships in ATP Tour Finals in Turin in November, were devastated after their Wimbledon loss is an understatement.
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 lasting 2hr 49min despite not facing a break point for the entirety of the decider.
Purcell arrived at a press conference nursing a couple of beers and stated with certainty they would not be his last for the night as they considered what had gone wrong — very little, in truth, aside from failing to clinch three match points — on the court.
“Plain and simple, it just sucks,” Thompson said at the time.
But the 30-year-old, who also reached the last 16 of the singles when beaten by Alex de Minaur,
“To be grand slam champions, it has a great ring to it, especially after what happened at Wimbledon,” he said.
“It got a bit tense there at the end, with match points, but we stuck with it and we got there in the end.”
The Australians will share A$1.12 million for winning the title and have moved to third place in the tour race for the season.
Thompson had already pocketed almost A$500,000 for making the last 16 at the US Open for the second time in his career.
The Australians had opportunities in the opening game of the final on the serve of Tim Puetz, who double-faulted twice in succession in a clear sign of nerves.
While they were unable to seize those chances, they struck on their third break point of Puetz’s second service game when securing the sole break for an opening set in which they were not challenged on their own service games.
Similarly to the first set, the Australians were able to secure a service break in the fifth game of the second set by drawing an error from the German combination at the net with a couple of powerful passing strokes.
The Australians had a couple of match points on the Krawietz serve at 5-3 in the second set before Purcell, who had served well through the final, struck a couple of double faults and then netted a smash to drop serve to love.
Another opportunity to break went begging at 5-all but after Thompson, who was the best player on the court after his disappointment at the All England Club, was able to force a tiebreaker, the Australians were the steadier combination in the tiebreaker.
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