There's life in Nick Kyrgios's French Open campaign yet, with the second-round singles loser leading a banner day for Australia in doubles in Paris.
Backing up their first-round win over French second seeds Pierre-Hugues Herbert and Nicolas Mahut, Kyrgios and Thompson edged Germans Mischa Zverev and Jan-Lennard Struff in a three-set thriller on Friday.
Kyrgios and Thompson prevailed 6-4 6-7 (3-7) 7-6 (7-5) to book a third-round appointment with American Donald Young and Santiago Gonzalez of Mexico.
The pair's Australian Davis Cup teammate Sam Groth is also celebrating after teaming with Swede Robert Lindstedt to send the legendary Mike and Bob Bryan packing with a 7-6 (7-4) 6-3 triumph over the 16-times grand slam champions.
The victory over the third seeds fired Groth and Robert Lindstedt into the fourth round and to within two wins from a possible semi-final showdown with Kyrgios and Thompson.
Kyrgios was hoping a doubles run at Roland Garros would boost his spirits after a deflating four-set singles loss to Kevin Anderson.
Former world No.1 Mats Wilander is backing Kyrgios's decision to play doubles, saying it could help the 22-year-old become world No.1.
Kyrgios admits he is not the greatest trainer and Wilander believes doubles is the perfect trade-off.
"When you serve like he does, it's not like you need to go and bench press," the three-time French Open champion said.
"And so playing doubles is going to be good for him. Instead of practising and hitting, shall we say, lower quality balls, he is going to be competing in match play.
"He isn't going to want to let his partner down. The tennis he plays in doubles is going to be high quality intense tennis. And that can only be good for him.
"He obviously loves the team environment. And I mean, whatever crazy things he may or may not have done, you go into the locker room and all the players like him. He's a popular guy.
"I love that he is playing doubles here. It shows that he wants to play tennis, and that is great news for the whole of the sport."
with Reuters
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