Thompson blasts ref in five-set Open loss

Aussie fighter Jordan Thompson has put match officials in the spotlight after a tense five-set Australian Open loss to Argentine Nicolas Kicker.

The 23-year-old voiced his displeasure at Russian chair umpire Anastasia Kosheleva's controversial call to replay a point at a critical stage of the deciding set in his 6-3 6-1 4-6 3-6 6-3 defeat.

Up 2-0 in the final set, Thompson was hunting for another break and challenged a call to get it back to deuce on Kicker's serve.

Hawk-Eye showed his forehand winner caught a large chunk of the line and, despite the Argentinian netting the ball, Kosheleva ordered the point be replayed.

"He missed it," Thompson yelled at the match official, visually shocked by the call.

"You guys never do your jobs, never."

At the change of ends, he continued the verbal stoush: "Tell me he was going to make the ball, tell me that.

"You should get reviewed for that."

Post-match, a fuming Thompson refused to label the decision a "turning point" in the match, but admitted it "certainly didn't help".

"The way I saw it he even gave up on that ball, he had no intention of making it," he said.

"He thought it was going out too, I reckon."

The Sydneysider said the current replay system gave too much discretion to the match official.

"It's up to the umpire and I think that's a real grey area," Thompson said.

"I think they've got to fix that."

Women's rising star Daria Gavrilova backed up her fellow Aussie, tweeting "Thomo is right" in the aftermath of the on-court incident.

After digging his way out of a two-set hole, the third-ranked Aussie male eventually fell in three hours and 42 minutes.

A year ago, Thompson sprung his first home-slam upset, coming up trumps after going the distance with Portugal's Joao Sousa.

On Tuesday, after failing to convert a single break-point chance in the first two sets, Thompson pounced at 5-4 to steal the third.

Smashing his racquet early in the fourth seemed to release some of the world No.99's home-crowd jitters as he rattled off two breaks of serve to take it to a fifth.

Thompson then looked home and hosed after going up a break in the fifth, but the match slipped away when he was unable to convert six break points in an eight-game deuce at 2-all.