No Kyrgios, no Tomic: Aussie Thompson finally gets a little attention

25-year-old Jordan Thompson is the last man standing for Australia at the French Open, reaching the third round of a Slam for the first time.

On Thursday, Thompson beat 40-year-old Ivo Karlovic in four sets. All the rest of the Australians fell in the first two rounds or withdrew: Alex de Minaur, Nick Kyrgios, Matthew Ebden, John Millman, Alexei Popyrin, and Bernard Tomic.

It's not often that Thompson is front and center in Australian men's tennis, where the temperamental Kyrgios and Tomic get most of the attention.

“I am very happy to go under the radar, I’m usually a man of few words,” said the No. 69 Thompson. “They [Kyrgios and Tomic] take all the headlines. Alex is our No. 1 and he’s a quality player. But I don’t think even he gets that much of the limelight. I think he’s pretty happy with that as well. I am low down in the pecking order and that’s fine with me.”

Having been on tour for six years, Thompson is now a Top 100 regular. At the Miami Open, he upset No. 12 Karen Khachanov and No. 29 Grigor Dimitrov before he lost against Kevin Anderson in the round of 16.

Thompson will play his third round against Juan Martin del Potro, the 2009 US Open champion.

"Del Potro is a big unit too, great serve, big forehand and backhand's not bad either," Thompson said. I've never been in a third round [at a Grand Slam] before—want to keep going, don't want to stop there, but I should be going there playing freely."