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Andy Murray can claim some share of the acclaim for Novak Djokovic’s extraordinary victory over Carlos Alcaraz on Tuesday night, then at least a sliver of credit should be allotted to his fellow Scot Jacob Fearnley.
Fearnley, one of the stars of the first week of the Australian Open after his run to the third round, was the man who warmed Djokovic up for his blockbuster quarter-final.
The 23-year-old has stayed on in Melbourne ahead of Great Britain’s Davis Cup tie in Japan at the end of January, and so was one of the few singles players left on site when Djokovic was after a hitting partner.
‘It was unexpected,’ said Fearnley. ‘I was about to leave and one of his coaches came up to me and asked in the locker room, “Would you want to hit with Novak?” Obviously I was like, “Yeah, sure!”.
‘It was really cool. And Andy was on the court as well. It was a good experience for me and my coach.’
Fearnley did feel an element of pressure in the responsibility of preparing the 10-time champion for such a huge match.
Given Fearnley was beaten by Alexander Zverev here in Melbourne and hit with Djokovic, he is better placed than most to predict who will come out on top in Friday’s semi-final.
‘It will be an exceptional match,’ he said.
‘They’re both extremely solid, both move extremely well. I think there’ll be a lot of long rallies.
‘A lot of it will come down to serving. Zverev has been serving amazing and obviously Djokovic is the best returner we’ve ever seen. It’s going to be extremely close.’
