Jordan Thompson confronted a heckler at the Cincinnati Open who shouted that he wanted to see fellow Australian tennis star Nick Kyrgios instead. Thompson came from behind to secure a hard-fought victory over Ugo Humbert, booking his place in the second round of the Masters 1000 event.

It was not all plain sailing for the 30-year-old, who dropped the first set but grew into the match to claim a 3-6 6-3 7-6 triumph. He was also forced to deal with heckling from the stands and ended up confronting one of the rowdy fans with frustrations threatening to boil over.

Two people sitting in the front row mocked Johnson on several occasions during the early stages of the match. Chair umpire Mohamed Lahyani stepped in to ask for quiet after Johnson complained about the heckling between points, but the fans continued to shout.

During the second set, one of the hecklers was warned by security officials that he would be removed from the venue if he could not keep himself quiet. In response, the fan argued that he was supporting Humbert as he had placed a bet on the Frenchman before the match.

It was at this point that Thompson began to mount his comeback as the fan continued to hurl insults at him despite receiving multiple warnings. The Sydney native eventually snapped and walked over to confront the heckler, who was unmoved and kept disrupting proceedings.

At one stage, the heckler shouted that he would rather watch Kyrgios than Thompson as his fellow supporters began to grow frustrated with the constant disturbances. It was Thompson who had the last laugh, though, claiming the final two sets to earn a deserved victory.

Denis Shapovalov, who was recently defaulted from his match against Ben Shelton at the Citi Open after confronting a fan, later jumped to the defence of Thompson with a post on social media. He simply wrote: “So how long are we going to keep allowing these things to go on?”

It remains to be seen if the ATP will consider introducing additional measures to protect players from hecklers after the latest incidents with Shapovalov and Johnson. The latter will certainly be hoping to avoid further disruption in his next match at the Cincinnati Open against Sebastian Baez.

The Aussie hopeful has never won a Masters 1000 title, with his only triumph on the ATP circuit coming at the Los Cabos Open in Mexico earlier this year.