British number 13 Jacob Fearnley was grateful to receive pre-match pointers from Andy Murray before he pushed Novak Djokovic in a high-quality second-round defeat to the seven-time Wimbledon champion.
The Edinburgh-born right-hander followed in the footsteps of Murray by taking on Djokovic on Centre Court to continue his dream debut week at the Championships.
While Fearnley bowed out after a 6-3 6-4 5-7 7-5 loss, the 22-year-old made the most of the occasion with 42 winners to give the home crowd plenty to shout about and was helped by words of wisdom from Murray.
Fearnley said: “I haven’t spoken to Andy, but I know that he said some words to Mark Hilton, who is working with Andy and he is working quite closely with me.
“He gave Mark some points to give to me, which was nice. The stuff he said actually helped a lot. Not unsurprisingly because he’s played him so many times. That was really nice of him.
“I don’t know if he watched it, but yeah, it was awesome that he was even thinking about the match. It was really cool.”
It had been a whirlwind month for Fearnley after he finished his five-year stint at Texas Christian University in May before he won an ATP Challenger Tour event in Nottingham as a qualifier last month.
Novak Djokovic and Jacob Fearnley combined to create a Centre Court classic 😲
Today's Play of the Day, presented by @BarclaysUK#Wimbledon pic.twitter.com/GsayyiXfSJ— Wimbledon (@Wimbledon) July 4, 2024
A wild card at the All England Club followed for the world number 277 and after he defeated Alejandro Moro Canas on Tuesday, the small matter of 24-time grand-slam winner Djokovic was up next on the grandest of stages in SW19.
No nerves were initially present from Fearnley, who walked out with his white baseball cap back-to-front and sealed a simple hold with a 121mph ace.
An enthralling encounter followed, with Fearnley’s first-set highlight a wonderful backhand, which kissed the white chalk to conclude a 21-shot rally, but Djokovic did break in that same eighth game to claim set one.
Fearnley failed to grasp his first break point chance in the fourth game of the second set, but recovered from going two sets down to begin the third set impressively.
The wild card earned a clap from Djokovic after a neat volley and had the crowd on their feet when he broke in the sixth game.
He repeated the feat six games later when Djokovic sent his forehand wide to give the Scot a memorable set.
After a clenched-fist celebration, Fearnley pulled out a tweener, but he could not take more break points in the fourth set as he lost in exactly three hours before a standing ovation greeted his departure from Centre Court.
“I’m really proud of my effort,” Fearnley said.
Jacob Fearnley, take a bow 🇬🇧@DjokerNole and the Centre Court crowd give the 22-year-old Brit a big applause after a great showing at his first #Wimbledon pic.twitter.com/pIdFriy6Ci
— Wimbledon (@Wimbledon) July 4, 2024
“A little bit disappointed to come up with a loss, but I was playing the greatest tennis player of all time on Centre Court, Wimbledon, so it’s very difficult to be too disappointed.
“I’m going to give myself a tap on the back and be, like, ‘yeah, it was a great summer,’. I’ll go to dinner with my family tonight and we’ll talk about it.
“In the next couple of days it will fizzle out, and yeah, move on to the next.
“It’s just the start. I’ve been out of college for a bit over a month.
“In terms of the future, I don’t know where my ranking is really at right now. I think I’m on 220, so I think I’m into (US Open) qualies as of now, if I’m not mistaken, but I’m not so sure.
“I think I’m going to go over to the States and play some of the challengers there. Hopefully get into Newport 250 in qualifying and yeah, just excited to get back playing.”
