Nick Kyrgios will make his return to grand slam tennis for the first time since US Open 2022 at this year’s Australian Open.
After recovering from chronic wrist and hip injuries, the 29-year-old will play his first-round match at Melbourne Park against little-known British talent Jacob Fearnley on Monday night at John Cain Arena.
Fearnley has only ever played at one grand slam tournament before but has bolted up the rankings in the past 12 months.
The Sporting News explains what you need to know about Kyrgios’ opening round opponent.
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Who is Jacob Fearnley? Nick Kyrgios’ next opponent
Fearnley is a 23-year-old British tennis player, who is currently ranked 92 in the world, however he was outside the top 1000 a little over 12 months ago.
This will be his debut at the Australian Open after making his grand slam bow at Wimbledon last year – running into Novak Djokovic in the second round.
While he has only played five ATP matches in his entire career, Fearnley has risen up the rankings to the top 100 based on his form on the Challenger Tour – where he won four titles in 2024.
Last year, Fearnley picked up wins against Chris O’Connell, Corentin Moutet, Adrian Mannarino and Juncheng Shang.
Fearnley’s anxiety at being drawn against Kyrgios
After seeing he had been paired versus Kyrgios for his Melbourne Park debut, Fearnley admitted to feeling uneasy.
“Yeah, it was a bit of anxiety, for sure,” Fearnley said to the press.
“It’s not kind of a match you want to see in Australia. I know that the crowd’s going to be against me.
“Obviously there was a lot of excitement, as well, because it’s not a common match.”
However, Fearnley believes his experience playing against Djokovic on Wimbledon centre court will help him deal with the crowd at the Kyrgios match.
“I think the difference is there’s not going to be that much support coming for me,” he said.
“I can take a lot from it. The way I was able to handle it, I did a good job. Hopefully I can just improve my maturity in those moments.
“Obviously every match is new. We don’t know what’s going to happen. Hopefully I can use that experience in my favor.”
