Jacob Fearnley has received one of the biggest breaks of his tennis career after being given a “lucky loser” card into the first round of the US Open.
The 25-year-old, from Edinburgh, had lost his final qualifying match to Austrian Juri Radionov by 6-4, 4-6, 6-4 when, within hours, he heard that Ugo Humbert had been forced to withdraw and he was the nominated main draw replacement.
Jacob will play Spain’s Martin Landaluci, a former world No 1 junior and the 2022 US Open junior champion who recently beat Jack Draper in the Cincinnati Masters.
As well as an opportunity to progress his game amongst the tennis elite and maybe capture welcome ranking points there is also the slight matter of a £103,000 prize for reaching the first round of the tournament proper.
Financial considerations aside Jacob will look to make up ground lost in a disappointing qualifying defeat by Radionov who had only previously played in one Grand Slam event – a French Open – having fallen at several qualifying hurdles previously.
Not for the first time a series of double faults undermined Jacob’s powerful ground shots, attacking net play and athletic court covering.
There also looked to be tension creeping into his game resuming on serve at 2-3 in the final set after an overnight rain delay.
But that is in the past and the East of Scotland tennis ambassador has the opportunity of a fresh start and could maybe even re-launch his career with what would be a notable victory.
It is not unknown for lucky losers to celebrate their reprieve by going deep into grand slams though none have ever gone beyond the fourth round,
He and Landaluci are due on Flushing Meadow court 5 around late evening on Sunday in a match expected to be shown “live” on Sky Television.
