Barely a week ago, Jordan Thompson didn’t rate his chances of playing at Wimbledon 2025 – no wonder, given his encyclopaedia of injuries this season.

Yet the Australian world No.44 has come through three titanic matches to reach The Championships’ last 16 for the first time in nine career forays. He faces No.5 seed Taylor Fritz on Sunday for a place in the last eight.

“It's just gone from injury to injury since the start of the year, always in constant pain on court,” the 31-year-old Thompson said, before cheerfully listing his medical glossary.

“Ruptured plantar fascia in my right foot – thought someone shot me. I came back two months later. Then a little groin tear, an oblique tear, a herniated disc, and now problems with the sacroiliac joint in the back. Good times!

“Grass is probably my best surface but it hasn’t shown at Wimbledon. So it’s pleasing to get my best result here. The only place I’ve made the fourth round before is the US Open.”

After back pain forced his retirement from his Queen’s opener, the original plan here was to make the latest possible decision.

“Give my all and play on some pain meds,” he said, frankly. “If it wasn’t Wimbledon, there’s no way I’d play. I’d have been on the flight home.”

And yet Thompson has opted into the gentlemen’s doubles here too. In the 2024 final he and Max Purcell held three Championship points over Harri Heliovaara and Henry Patten but fell short. Two months later they lifted the US Open trophy – Thompson's first Grand Slam triumph.

Last month he picked up his eighth tour-level doubles crown in Halle, with Matthew Ebden. At Wimbledon he is playing alongside career Grand Slam winner Pierre-Hugues Herbert, honouring an arrangement made before Thompson was nursing his assorted injuries, especially his back.

“I didn’t want to let him down,” Thompson said. “He’s a better doubles player than me anyway. He’s won everything there is. It’s great to take the court with him.”

On Saturday, they beat Mattia Bellucci and Fabian Marozsan giving Thompson a chance once again to face Heliovaara and Patten, this time in the third round.

The Sydneysider’s sheer resilience is matched by his will to compete. It’s not as if his singles path here has been a light stroll. He kicked off by coming back from two sets down to beat Vit Kopriva, before another nerve-shredding five-setter against Daniil Medvedev’s conqueror Benjamin Bonzi, and then settled for a mere four sets to overcome Luciano Darderi.

Weirdly, Fritz’s progress has followed an identical path – back from two sets down in the first round, to Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard, going the distance against Gabriel Diallo next, and then another four to see off Alejandro Davidovich Fokina.

“Thompson is going to be tricky,” Fritz acknowledged. “He's probably going to serve and volley me a lot, chip me a lot. He's good on grass. It will be a different kind of match to the ones I've played – a lot of trying break my rhythm, to take me out of my groove of just serving and ripping.” 

Thompson goes into it boosted by the fact that he defeated Fritz on the grass of Queen’s in last year’s quarter-finals.

“Different grass, different circumstances to Queen’s so it’ll be a new day,” he said. “But it’s a pathetic outlook if I go out there thinking I can’t win. He’s rock solid with a great serve. I’ve got to try to make him feel uncomfortable.”

For wise counsel, alongside coach Marinko Matosevic, he has Lleyton Hewitt in his corner.

The 2002 Wimbledon champion (dubbed 'Rusty' by coach Darren Cahill for his resemblance to the eponymous character in the National Lampoon’s Vacation films) was Thompson’s idol as a young player.

“Obviously I’m with Marinko every day but I’m grateful Rusty’s there. I look to both of them. Rusty’s done everything in tennis and he knows how it feels.

“Marinko will be the first to admit that and take a back step – he’s got no ego about coaching. He just wants the best for me, so it works well.”

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