SILVER SERVICE
Tennis star throws away huge advantage in rarely-seen classy gesture at Australian Open
Aussie was made to pay for his kindness as two other players show brilliant sportsmanship
JORDAN THOMPSON showed his class with a brilliant-but-rare gesture of sportsmanship.
The Aussie star, 29, was playing in front of his home crowd in the Australian Open second round against Stefanos Tsitsipas.
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Tsitsipas, 25, was serving for the third set at 5-2 when he missed his first serve at 30-15.
However, as the Greek seventh seed was preparing to take the second, a seagull flew into the Margaret Court Arena and circled around the stadium.
The bird did not take a perch on the court like on the same court on Monday - causing play to be halted briefly - but it did force a delay of around 70 seconds.
As the gull flew around causing havoc, the crowd laughed but the exasperated players shook their heads in disbelief at the disturbance.
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So when the bird eventually exited, Thompson should have been ready to take advantage of a nervy wait for Tsitsipas' second serve.
However, the 29-year-old Sydney star held up his index finger to his opponent - indicating that he was happy for Tsitsipas to have another first serve, essentially telling his opponent to restart the point after the interruption.
The umpire could not have awarded a let so it had to be done by a generous act of kindness from Thompson - who needed to break back twice to salvage the third set.
In the end, though, 2023 runner-up Tsitsipas grabbed the opportunity with both hands as he boomed down an ace to make it 40-15 then sealed the third set at the first time of asking.
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Interestingly, No4 seed Jannik Sinner made Jesper de Jong the exact same offer.
He suggested the Dutchman qualifier could have a first serve after a phone went off before his second serve.
But De Jong politely declined, prompting tennis fans to heap praise on Italian Sinner.
One said: "Classy player. Great for tennis."
Another wrote: "You love to see it!"
But a third joked: "De Jong already seeing the scoreboard like nah let me get outta here mate."
There was also plenty of love for American qualifier Aleksandar Kovacevic during his match with Karen Khachanov.
A ball boy's blunder saw a ball caught before it had bounced out on break point - sparking a furious reaction from No15 seed Khachanov who demanded to be shown the rules when a replayed point was called.
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However, Kovacevic knew his shot was going out and stepped in to concede the point.
Ironically, both Kovacevic and Thompson went on to lose their second-round matches Down Under - but Sinner did breeze through.
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