Edinburgh’s Jacob Fearnley will begin his first-ever US Open main draw singles event against veteran Spaniard Roberto Bautista Agut in New York next week.
And if the former Colinton tennis junior and Merchiston Castle School alumnus was to get through that testing opener against a 37-year-old with a best ever ranking of world No 9 – he is now No 47 which is 12 places higher than Fearnley – then chances are he would face the third seed Alexander Zverev.
At the beginning of this year it was Zherevwho put an end to Fearnley’s encouraging Australian Open campaign at the third round stage.
It is a relief to see Fearnley’s name appearing in the draw after he bowed out of a Challenger event against Australia’s James McCabe suffering either injury or a heat issue: it has never been made clear.
As a late entrant Jacob had required been to negotiate one qualifying round, something he did for the loss of just two games.
And the McCabe encounter was certainly winnable as he was serving for the match at one stage against a much lower ranked opponent before becoming incapacitated.
Returning to the main ATP tour Jacob had a chance to breath fresh life into his career after three successive first round losses at this level but came up short in Winston-Salem against the Serbian No 4 and Novak Djokovic prodigy Hamad Medjedovic.
By contrast with recent weeks though Jacob reduced his error count including double faults and actually had two set points before going down in straight sets.
Confidence did seem fragile though and a clash with Bautista Agut, famed for some epic encounters with Andy Murray, would certainly help restore some much needed self belief.
Others Scots in the draw are a revitalised Cam Norrie who faces off against Seb Korda, doubles specialists Mia Lumsden and Jamie Murray and wheelchair whizz, Gordon Reid.
