Jacob Fearnley’s fantastic Australian Open debut ended with a straight-sets loss to second seed Alexander Zverev within the third spherical.
The Scot continues to take the higher ranges of the skilled sport comfortably in his stride and he didn’t look misplaced in opposition to one of many match favourites on Margaret Court docket Enviornment.
However he couldn’t preserve any sustained stress on Zverev, who wrapped up a 6-3 6-4 6-4 victory in two hours and two minutes.
Fearnley struck marginally extra winners, together with his forehand inflicting Zverev constant issues, however there have been additionally 34 unforced errors in comparison with solely 15 for the German.
It has however been a wonderful week for Fearnley, who defeated Nick Kyrgios and the Australian crowd within the first spherical earlier than coming from a set right down to see off Arthur Cazaux in spherical two.
Lower than eight months into his skilled tennis profession, Fearnley will break into the world’s high 80 after the match, and he’s sure to go larger with no rating factors to defend till June.
The 23-year-old acquitted himself very properly dealing with Novak Djokovic on his Grand Slam debut at Wimbledon final 12 months, taking a set off the Serb and practically forcing a decider.
He was unable to make any inroads on the Zverev serve within the opening set right here, which was determined by one break within the sixth sport.
The Scot then took a medical timeout off court docket for an issue that was not instantly obvious however stepped up his aggression firstly of the second set.
He pressured two break factors within the second sport however couldn’t take both, and fortune went in opposition to him at 3-3 when Zverev broke by means of once more after a shot off the netcord put Fearnley in a tough place.
Fearnley was not deterred, although, and broke straight again after once more seizing the initiative in a protracted baseline rally.
That elicited the primary little bit of emotion from the composed 23-year-old, who pumped his fist, with Zverev dropping serve for the primary time all match.
Zverev additionally confronted a British participant on the identical court docket final 12 months, lastly battling previous Fearnley’s fellow Texas Christian College alumnus Cameron Norrie in a fifth-set tie-break.
However Fearnley’s hopes of pulling off one thing related suffered a serious blow when he was damaged once more, double-faulting at 15-30 after which netting a volley.
It was a let-off for Zverev, and the sample repeated itself early within the third set when Fearnley dropped serve, broke again – prompting the German to rant at his teaching field – solely to lose his serve as soon as extra.
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Fearnley did properly to carry serve thereafter however Zverev prevented any additional alarms.
Afterwards, the second seed praised his opponent, saying: “I think he’s an incredible player, he went through all the stages. I’ve massive respect for him, and the effort that he’s put into the sport, and he’s going to get better I think over the next few years.”
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