Fearnley debut turns Kyrgios’ return into potential finale

Up and coming Brit, 23 year old Jacob Fearnley from Edinburgh, converted his first direct entry into a Grand Slam into a stunning straight sets win over home  favourite Nick Kyrgios 7-6 ( 3) 6-3, 7-6 (2) in Melbourne.

This was Kyrgios’s long awaited return to the Australian Open, and it could have been his last.

Fearnley only returned to UK from Fort Worth Texas Christian University last April where he won All-American NCAA honours in all four years, took full advantage of his opponent’s physical problems in the much anticipated first-round match.

For former Wimbledon finalist Kyrgios this was his first appearance at the Australian Open since 2022 due a string of  troublesome  injuries.

Talking to John McEnroe on court Fearnley said “I was nervous and didn’t get much sleep. I knew the match would be rowdy,”

“It was a great match even if Nick was dealing with some stuff. I tried to focus on myself as best I could.

“I tried to play my game and move fast on each point. This is probably the best match I’ve ever played, it’s up there.

“I knew I could not get the crowd on my side and I expected some heckles but I experienced a lot of that at TCU,” added the player competing in only his second Grand Slam event.

His defeated opponent  said later “Yeah, it was an amazing – I just want to start with the atmosphere. It’s incredible to be back. It was definitely not my best performance. But, look, full credit to my opponent. He played really well tonight. 

I was really impressed with his level. Hits the ball really flat, really aggressive. I knew tonight was going to be tough. 

With my physical state going into the match, I knew that I was going to be really hindered with my serve.

But just seeing the fans line up for four, five hours, just the amount of people that were there supporting me, it was hard to kind of throw the towel in. 

Would have been really easy to kind of just roll over.

I tried to do the best I could with the state I was in physically.

Obviously heartbreaking because, yeah, I obviously wanted to play well. I feel like my level’s there. 

Obviously the timing of the abdominal strain is not ideal. But it is what it is”

The next examination for Fearnley will be a second-round meeting with Arthur Cazaux.

Main photo:- Jakob Feranley serves to Nick Kyrgios during first round victory – by ATPTour.com