Tag: Fearnley

Player Features

The ongoing education of Jacob Fearnley

Insight from Fearnley’s coach Juan Martin

January 16, 2025

When you have held a job for a short amount of time, every day is an opportunity to learn something new. That has been the case for Jacob Fearnley as a professional tennis player.

On Friday, the Briton will play second seed Alexander Zverev in the third round of the Australian Open. It is Fearnley’s second major main draw and his first trip this deep into a Grand Slam tournament.

“It’s another massive match. I assume it will be on a big court,” Fearnley said. “Obviously he’s No. 2 in the world. He’s playing unbelievable. I’m aware that all these matches that I’m getting are extremely challenging.”

In the second round at Wimbledon last year, Fearnley faced 24-time major champion Novak Djokovic on Centre Court and took a set from the Serbian. Earlier this week, the 23-year-old faced home favourite Nick Kyrgios in an evening match in front of the Australian crowd.

A year ago Fearnley was sitting in class at Texas Christian University, still playing college tennis. As recently as October 2023, his PIF ATP Ranking was No. 1,893. So all of these experiences are a massive help, according to coach Juan Martin, who also competed for TCU.

“We always discuss that match with Djokovic at Wimbledon, because it was such a big moment and you get to live so many experiences in one. Home crowd, Wimbledon — his favourite tournament as a British player — Centre Court against Djokovic,” Martin said. “[You have] pressure just seeing your mom out there, seeing your dad out there, buddies that flew from Spain, from the U.S., just to watch him play.

“It’s just a massive stage, so you get to experience a lot. But he’s still quite fresh, quite new here as well. Every match is a new experience, and we are learning what to do and what not to do as well.”

An example came last year at Wimbledon. It was the most special moment of Fearnley’s young career, but also an educational one. Although he played well on court, there were takeaways of what he should change off court.

“Something that we learned there was not spending too much time in the club. Everything was nice. He was a crowd favourite because he’s British. He was a new guy on the block and you just get excited, and you want to be there from 7 a.m. until they close at 2 a.m. That’s just very draining and something that he noticed,” Martin said. “You rarely see Sinner, you rarely see Alcaraz… They are there for like 30 minutes a day. And so just managing energy, that’s massive.

“You can’t spend 10 hours a day at the club. That was a mistake that we did in the past, and now we’re very on it.”

Fearnley’s team shares a philosophy. They do not worry about making mistakes. They worry about not learning from them.

In the second round of the Australian Open, Fearnley defeated Arthur Cazaux in front of a raucous Court 6 crowd. An added layer was the courtside bar, leading to a memorable atmosphere, which the Briton was happy to compete in, but unprepared for.

“In the future I’ll definitely make an effort to go and see the court first because it did kind of catch me a little bit off guard,” Fearnley said. “The Kyrgios match was louder, but I was a bit more distant, so it didn’t kind of feel as in my face. Whereas, this one it feels like you’re face-to-face, and it was pretty loud.”

Since the start of June, Fearnley has done a lot of winning, capturing four ATP Challenger Tour titles and surging into the world’s Top 100. But Martin is aware that the small margins by which he has found the form of his life could turn things in the other direction, too.

“You’re around these [players], and you start noticing how important little details are, and that’s the difference. One point can win you or lose you a match, and I don’t know. Not being properly hydrated can be the difference in that point, and that’s your match, just because you didn’t hydrate properly,” Martin said. “So I think that he’s learning how to take care of those little things and being professional, being organised, taking care of nutrition, his strength and conditioning, pre-match activation. Just everything has to be done a certain way. Obviously there’s flexibility, but you just need to tick boxes every day. And I think he’s learning how to do that.”

Fearnley has another big challenge ahead of him in two-time Nitto ATP Finals champion Zverev, whose game he admires “immensely”. The Briton watched live Zverev’s match against Cameron Norrie at Wimbledon last year.

“I’d never really seen him play live, and I was, like, ‘He’s an amazing tennis player’. You kind of don’t really get a grasp of it until you actually see it live,” Fearnley said. “He was incredible, and obviously he’s still pretty young actually, and he’s been seven, eight years at the top of the game. Yeah, incredible tennis player, and I’m really excited that I’ll get a chance to play one of the biggest names in tennis.”