A tennis player from Edinburgh has pulled off an upset at the Australian Open by dumping one of the tournament’s hometown heroes. Jacob Fearnley has progressed into the second round on his event debut after a brilliant first-round performance against Nick Kyrgios on Monday evening at Melbourne Park. The No. 92 in the PIF ATP Rankings came out on top via a margin of 7-6(3), 6-3, 7-6(2). Kyrgios, making his first Australian Open appearance since 2022, called for the physio twice in the second set because of an abdominal injury and succumbed to a player in top form after an excellent 12 months. Born in Edinburgh, it is Fearnley’s third tour-level victory after first-round triumphs at Wimbledon and in Stockholm in 2024. He has risen quickly up the PIF ATP Rankings since completing a four-and-a-half-year stay at Texas Christian University in the USA. He started 2024 as the World No. 646, lifting four ATP Challenger Tour trophies en-route to a career-high 86 earlier this month, now sitting at 92. After beating the former world number 13 in his own backyard, Fearnley will face a second-round meeting with Arthur Cazaux, the Frenchman who won 6-3, 5-7, 3-6, 6-0, 6-3 against 28th seed Sebastian Baez. He said in his on-court interview: “I was extremely nervous before the match. I didn’t get too much sleep. “I knew it was going to be a rowdy match, and I thought I played good. I’m sorry for Nick. I could tell he was dealing with some stuff, but it was a great match, and I really enjoyed playing in front of [the crowd]. “All things considered, I think it’s probably the best match I ever played. I’ve never experienced anything like this, but I definitely had some heckles thrown my way over four-and-a-half seasons at TCU. That definitely helped, but I think that an experience like this will help me going forward for sure.”
