'Brutal but fun' – How US college fuelled Fearnley's rapid rise

Transferring to the US had lengthy been on Fearnley’s radar, and finding out at TCU – the place fellow Britons Cameron Norrie and Alastair Grey had been alumni – appeared a logical alternative.

“I used to be all the time a bit bodily underdeveloped and college was an enormous factor – my mother and father wished me to have one thing to fall again on if tennis did not work,” Fearnley stated.

“I additionally did not really feel prepared mentally to play tennis. I wished 5 years to develop my recreation, develop as an individual, socialise and meet new folks.”

When Fearnley arrived at TCU, teaching workers on the ‘Frogs’ noticed a shy 18-year-old initially held again on the courtroom by self-doubt.

The character of US faculty tennis – all noise, trash speaking and crew bonding – will not be for the faint-hearted.

“School tennis is a really emotional type of tennis. There’s much more power from the gamers and different groups,” Devin Bowen, assistant coach of males’s tennis at TCU, advised BBC Sport.

“It was an awesome surroundings for Jake as a result of it examined him. It’s a good alternative to develop up, construct character and discover out who you might be.

“It’s thrilling and loads of enjoyable. However it may additionally actually be brutal.”

Fearnley all the time had “one thing particular” however wanted time to belief his skill, in line with former ATP doubles participant Bowen.

Finally he did.

A five-year spell in Fort Price introduced a bunch of particular person and crew accolades, culminating in TCU’s first nationwide males’s tennis title.

“His thoughts used to get tremendous overly-dramatic,” Bowen stated.

“5 minutes earlier than the match he’d say ‘I am unable to discover the grip on my forehand. It is all falling aside’.

“I would say ‘you may settle in, your thoughts is taking part in methods on you’.

“Now he has expertise, and a little bit knowledge, to know it’s what the thoughts does earlier than large matches.”