Jordan Thompson has continued his late-career breakthrough season by powering past American No.1 Taylor Fritz into a semi-final at the Queen's Club Championships in west London.
The blossoming Australian stalwart, flourishing on his favourite grass-court surface, defeated world No.12 Fritz 6-4 6-3 in their Friday quarter-final for one of his best wins of an increasingly notable 2024 campaign.
Reaching his first ever last-four appearance at ATP 500 level, the delighted Sydneysider smiled afterwards: "I'm getting old now, it just goes to shows that if you stick at it long enough you can keep improving, whatever age you are, and I feel like I'm getting better."
Thompson, who won his first ATP tournament title after 11 years on the circuit in Mexico in April, has emerged refreshed after a dismal clay-court spell for an impressive assault on the title at the sport's biggest grass-court event outside Wimbledon.
Already having accounted for world No.15 Holger Rune and local hero Andy Murray, who had to retire early with injury, Thompson quite outplayed Fritz, who had won their two previous encounters.
The American look thoroughly out of sorts, struggling with his footing a little and slipping a couple of times as Thompson led him a merry dance with his superior grass-court nous, emerging victorious after less than 80 minutes.
Thompson, the world No.43, is enjoying such a good run that a place as one of the 32 seeds at Wimbledon is not out of the question as he looks forward to a semi-final against Lorenzo Musetti, conqueror of Aussie No.1 Alex de Minaur earlier in the week, after the Italian beat British wildcard Billy Harris 6-3 7-5.
Thompson largely dominated from the start, buoyed by the sunny weather, as he created most of the break point openings in the first set.
He finally broke through when Fritz endured a stinker of a service game at 4-4, following up three forehand errors with a baseline slip that allowed the Australian to ease a backhand winner into the undefended court.
Things got worse for the American at the start of the second set, when a double fault gifted Thompson a break to love and the Sydneysider never released his grip, not even offering a single break point as he raced to victory on the back of 22 winners.
"It was extremely solid," he said. "It's probably one of the toughest tournaments in the world, so to come through to the semis is extremely pleasing, especially after I've had a rough run recently."
That rough run had featured not a single win since April. What was the difference here? "A green surface. It's not brick dust - I much more prefer this one," said Thompson.
The rare opportunity for two Australians to make the semi-finals was extinguished much later in the evening on Friday when Sydney qualifier Rinky Hijikata was left frustrated, succumbing 6-7 (4-7) 6-3 6-4 to American Sebastian Korda after an impressive opening.
Korda set up an all-American semi-final with fifth seed Tommy Paul, who spoiled the locals' fun by dispatching home hope Jack Draper 6-3 5-7 6-4 just 24 hours after the young Briton had knocked out Carlos Alcaraz for the biggest victory of his career.
