TRARALGON, October 30, 2016

Jordon Thompson is the champion of the 2016 Latrobe City Traralgon Challenger. The tournament’s top seed from Australia defeated fourth seed Grega Zemlja of Slovenia in Sunday’s final 6-1, 6-2.

Thompson sent down seven aces, winning 81 per cent of his first service points to prevail in 64 minutes. After lifting the trophy in Ho Chi Minh City last week, the 22-year-old continued his impressive run of form on home soil, celebrating his fourth ATP Challenger title of the season.

“To win two titles in a row is really good,” Thompson said. “They don’t come too often, so I’m pretty stoked with that.”

As an added bonus, the result sees his provisional world ranking push up to a career-high number 85, a goal his coach Des Tyson set for him earlier in the year.

“(Des) threw a number out there,” Thompson said. “It’s taken a while to get there but if it stays that way (when official rankings are released next week), that’d be awesome.”

Thompson will now move on to Canberra, where he’s confident his body will stand up to the rigours of several weeks of consecutive match play and provide him with an opportunity to make it a triple treat.

“The body’s going well,” he said. “I’ve had the odd niggle, but that’s normal, and the last few days haven’t been really long matches so that definitely helps.”

On Saturday, Matt Reid and John-Patrick Smith emerged victoriuos from the all-Australian-doubles final, winning 6-4, 6-4 over Matthew Barton and Matthew Ebden. The encounter lasted 51 minutes.