A fourth meeting of this year between Jacob Fearnley and Alexander Zverev will take place at the Vienna Open tennis on Tuesday after the Scot booked his place in the main draw with a successful two match qualifying campaign.
Jacob saw off Serbia’s Hamad Medjedovic 7-6, 6-3 in his final qualifying tie and in doing so reversed a defeat by the same opponent at the Winston Salem tournament earlier this year.
Earlier in the Vienna qualifiers Jacob was again a straight sets winner – against Croatia’s Dalibor Svrcina.
A dramatic first set saw Jacob come through the tie-break 13-11 and that must have given his confidence an almighty boost after a tame second round defeat in Stockholm last Thursday when it very much seemed he was hampered by an eye issue against local hope Elias Ymer.
That performance was a huge anti-climax coming on the back of a landmark victory over Dutchman Tallon Griekspoor, a three time ATP champion.
Prospects of a breakthrough win over Zverev, 2024 French Open champion and an Olympic gold medallist, must be considered an outside possibility but on the positive side he is now familiar with the German second seed’s style of play. Also the double fault problem which plagued Jacob against Ymer – a plethora of double faults in the opening service game alone – appeared to be more or less eliminated; only a couple against Medjedovic.
