Tennis star throws away huge advantage in rarely-seen classy gesture at Australian Open

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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Stefanos Tsitsipas’ second serve was interrupted by a seagull[/caption]

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Jordan Thompson told his Greek opponent to retake his first serve[/caption]

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.

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.

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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Tsitsipas was not impressed by the bird’s untimely arrival[/caption]

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The gull swooped around the stadium before eventually flying away[/caption]

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Karen Khachanov was furious when a ball boy caught a ball without it bouncing[/caption]

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Aleksander Kovacevic generously conceded the break point[/caption]