Ice-cool Jacob Fearnley tames Nick Kyrgios and ‘rowdy’ Australian Open crowd for biggest career win
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The 23-year-old claimed an impressive victory over Kyrgios, who admitted he may have played his last singles match at the Australian Open. Jacob Fearnley said keeping his composure against the “rowdy” Australian Open crowd was key to landing the biggest win of his career as the 23-year-old Scot defeated home favourite Nick Kyrgios to reach the second round.
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Fearnley was expecting a hostile atmosphere on the John Cain Arena but managed to silence the crowd for long spells as Kyrgios struggled with an abdominal injury on his first match at his home grand slam in three years. A late comeback from Kyrgios was not enough as Fearnley secured a 7-6 6-3 7-6 victory, with the former Wimbledon finalist admitting he may have played his final singles match at the Australian Open due to his frustrations with injury.
And Fearnley, who a year ago was ranked 646th in the world but has enjoyed a stunning rise since turning professional, denied Kyrgios a send-off win as he booked a second-round match against Frenchman Arthur Cazaux. “I think a lot of it was mental, especially in that third set,” Fearnley said. “You could kind of see that the tide was turning a little bit. I had to really fight to stay composed and not let my emotions get the better of me, not let the crowd get to my head.
“It was amazing. Honestly, it was one of the best experiences of my life. Obviously I was extremely nervous. It wasn’t really until I walked out there that I actually was kind of calm. “I think I kind of knew that I couldn’t really show any emotion because I felt that the crowd was just going to eat that alive. So I was kind of fighting to just stay composed and stay calm and not give them anything. That’s kind of what happened.”.
