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Australian Jordan Thompson ended up dropping his cap after serving, catches it and still wins a point.
Jordan Thompson (left) holds his cap during the rally with Luciano Darderi (right) who protested the point. (Screengrab/BBC)
Jordan Thompson might have earned a nod for winning a set-ending point at Wimbledon, all while holding his hat after it fell off his head during a serve. His opponent on Friday, Luciano Darderi, believed the point should not have been awarded to Thompson, but the chair umpire disagreed.
“I mean, my hat’s fallen off before, and I know what the rules are. It didn’t hinder him; it hindered me,” said Thompson, an Australian ranked 44th, who will face U.S. Open runner-up Taylor Fritz next. “So I don’t know what he was complaining about.”
With the score at 5-4, 40-15 against Darderi, Thompson used his hat to clinch the opening set, leading to a 6-4, 6-4, 3-6, 6-3 victory, sending him to the fourth round at the All England Club for the first time.
Hats off to you, sir! 🧢🫡👏 Jordan Thompson dropped and caught his cap, and still won the point – but his opponent wasn’t impressed! 😠 pic.twitter.com/AiVJomlx1a
— BBC Sport (@BBCSport) July 4, 2025
On a second serve, Thompson’s backward baseball cap slid off as he landed on his follow-through. He immediately grabbed it with his left hand and continued to play with his racket in his right hand, in a point that lasted seven strokes. Thompson finished it with a backhand volley winner, running to the net with his hat in hand.
Has he ever held part of his outfit during a point before?
“That’s the first time I can remember,” Thompson said.
At the moment, Darderi thought chair umpire Mohamed Lahyani would stop the point and order a replay due to the hat incident. The 59th-ranked Darderi, born in Argentina and representing Italy, walked to the sideline, pointing at Thompson and pleading his case with Lahyani.
At one point, Darderi removed his own white hat and yelled, “It’s the rule!”
But Lahyani wouldn’t budge, prompting Darderi to toss his racket towards the sideline seat, drawing some boos from the spectators at Court 18.
During the changeover between sets, as Darderi and Lahyani continued their discussion, Thompson noted that the rules address when a player’s hat hits the court — “Happened to me a few times,” he said — rather than if it’s caught out of the air.
“It didn’t seem normal to me to play a point with a hat in your hand. It was strange,” Darderi said at his news conference later. “But it was just one point. It didn’t change the match.”
On that, both players agreed.
“It’s not like it was 5-all in the fifth, deuce,” Thompson said. “Every point’s big, but it is what it is.”
A team of reporters, writers and editors brings you live updates, breaking news, opinions and photos from the wide world of sport. Follow @News18Sports
A team of reporters, writers and editors brings you live updates, breaking news, opinions and photos from the wide world of sport. Follow @News18Sports
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London, United Kingdom (UK)
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