Gavrilova through as Thiem ends Jordan Thompson's Australian Open

Australia’s Daria Gavrilova is through to the third round of the Australian Open but her compatriot Jordan Thompson’s campaign ended with a four-set loss to eighth seed Dominic Thiem. First up on Thursday night, world No26 Gavrilova overcome a jittery second set to dispatch Croatia’s hard-hitting Ana Konjuh 6-2, 1-6, 6-4 in a couple of minutes over two hours.

The Australian wears a Woolworths logo on her playing shirt but in the first set the only aisle in need of a clean-up was at Konjuh’s end of the court. The world No36 committed 19 unforced errors to the Australian’s six in a scattergun start.

It mattered not that Gavrilova barely hit her stride early, because her opponent – an Olympian last year in Rio – was so badly off her game. They call her “Dasha” and Gavrilova took the first in a 35-minute canter, pumping her first to punctuate a ruthless start.

Then the worm turned. Konjuh broke in the first game of the second set and held authoritatively to haul herself back into it, finally finding her range and clattering a string of winners past her opponent. Her power game was coming to the fore.

Gavrilova seemed rattled and chided herself between points, but couldn’t get the jump-start she needed. Her serve was broken twice more and the second set slipped away 6-1 in 32 minutes. At this point Konjuh was still hitting unforced errors (12 for the set) but led the winner count 23-8, bossing her opponent around. The tables hadn’t been turned so much as violently flipped.

Somehow though, Gavrilova negotiated the wreckage, hanging on stoutly in Konjuh’s nine-minute service game to start the third set and winning the vital break. Then both players lost their serve, and you didn’t quite know which way it would go.

Serving to make it 3-1, the adopted local offered yet another break opportunity but this time stood firm, and on those terms it stayed. Having held a nerve-jangling service game to make it 5-3, she twirled her right index finger in the air like like a bull-rider, then closed it out. Out-powered for much of the match, she was never quite outgunned.

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Not long after in the men’s singles, unfashionable local challenger Jordan Thompson squared off against world No8 Dominic Thiem, rising to the occasion a little too late in a creditable four-set loss on Margaret Court Arena. Thiem won it 6-2, 6-1, 7-6 (8-6), 6-4 in two hours and 43 minutes, but not without a fight.

Australian sport’s last famous sporting Thommo had an infamously straightforward modus operandi: “I just roll up and go whang.” This one doesn’t have quite the same explosive talent, so makes do with hard graft. He arrived at the second round via a five-set marathon against Portugal’s Joao Sousa, and after a slow start proved just as tricky for Thiem.

Australians have some grounds for complaint regarding the behavioural indiscretions of the country’s top tennis stars at the moment, but there are some quiet achievers in there too. Earlier in the day Andrew Whittington was beaten but not disgraced in a 6-4, 6-4, 6-4 loss to 20th seed Ivo Karlovic, and Thompson has the makings of a cult hero. His squeaky clean white New Balance shoes are so dadcore you suspect he pinched them off Harold Bishop.

Opposed to the scruffy local, Thiem looked like the “after” photo in a Clearasil commercial and bounced around the baseline in his trademark Rambo headband as if he was ready to punish some nerds in a game of dodgeball. Crucially, Thiem has the game to match the look, and rarely got too cute in the first set, wrapping it up 6-2 in 32 minutes.

The second was every bit as brisk, Thompson looking briefly capable of breaking at various points but never quite delivering. When he’d lost it 6-1 on the hour mark he’d been outstripped 17-3 in the winner count to that point and managed only one break for the match, where the 23-year-old Austrian had six. Some of Thiem’s best blows were weapons grade.

Thompson somehow conjured two break points to start the third set, but Thiem slammed the door shut with such brute force you suspected the rest would fall away very quickly. Not so. The local dug in and produced some of his best tennis of the night to keep it on terms until, at 4-4 and with momentum building, he had a chance to break. He missed his chance then, but not when the tiebreak arrived. Out of nowhere, he was giving the world No8 a significant scare.

Any hope Thompson would pull off another heist was dashed in the fourth set, when the Austrian broke first up and never relinquished his buffer. He prevailed to meet Benoit Paire in round three, but must have been left wondering how his breezy dominance early in this one gave way to such hard yakka.