Jordan Thompson’s run at Wimbledon has continued with the wounded warrior storming into the fourth spherical of his favorite occasion for the primary time in his profession.

Nonetheless harbouring a debilitating again damage that had him protesting after his two earlier brave five-set wins that even “snails transfer quicker”, Thompson seemed in significantly better nick when he confirmed he had an excessive amount of grass-court nous for Italian Luciano Darderi of their third-round conflict, prevailing 6-4, 6-4, 3-6, 6-3.

It booked the battling Thompson his first last-16 look at Wimbledon in his ninth try and solely the second fourth-round date of his grand slam profession, matching his US Open efficiency of final 12 months and 2020.

He’s the primary Australian to succeed in the fourth spherical on the grass-court slam this 12 months, with each Alex de Minaur and Daria Kasatkina having the prospect to affix him after they play on Saturday evening (AEST).

Within the amphitheatre of Courtroom 18, the 31-year-old additionally managed to bypass the type of nerve-shredding drama of his earlier two matches, which he gained in five-set slogs, this time nipping Darderi’s tried comeback within the bud after the Italian had taken the third set.

That raised the prospect that marathon man Thompson is likely to be dragged right into a seventh profession five-setter at Wimbledon — he has gained 5 and misplaced only one — just for him to reassert his high quality in opposition to the 23-year-old Darderi, whose two wins at Wimbledon this 12 months doubled his profession tally of grass-court victories.

He shall be relieved to have gained in seven minutes underneath three hours to keep away from any extra stress on his again, particularly with a frightening last-16 outing awaiting in opposition to in-form fifth seed Taylor Fritz, who defeated Spain’s twenty sixth seed Alejandro Davidovich Fokina 6-4, 6-3, 6-7 (5-7), 6-1.

Earlier, Rinky Hijikata’s daydream of pulling off the best of Wimbledon escapes in opposition to American big-hitter Ben Shelton lasted lower than a minute when the pair resumed their controversially suspended late-evening match.

Hijikata had acquired the surprising probability to reside to struggle one other day after saving three match factors after which being reprieved by a controversial postponement of play amid farcical scenes as darkness descended.

However when the match resumed on No.2 Courtroom in afternoon sunshine with tenth seed Shelton serving for the match, everybody might see the humorous facet as soon as he gained all 4 factors in simply 55 seconds, together with three booming aces, to complete the straightforward 6-2, 7-5, 6-3 victory in two hours 12 minutes.

“Final evening’s expertise was weird … however that was in all probability an absolute clinic on how you can serve out a match in the event you’ve acquired one recreation to go,” Hijikata mentioned.

“Yeah, credit score to him. It is not straightforward to come back out and serve out a match when you could have a little bit of stress and you’ve got had the evening off. I believed it was a bloody good effort by him.”

Australians in motion Saturday evening into Sunday morning

• 8pm: Daria Kasatkina (16) vs Liudmila Samsonova (19)
• 9:10pm: Alex de Minaur (11) vs August Holmgren

AAP