Jake Fearnley Grows From Giving Novak Djokovic Wimbledon Scare to Winning ATP Challenger Title in Rennes

Britain’s Jake Fearnley made it to the headlines despite the ongoing Davis Cup 2024. The British No.4 put up a stunning display at the ATP Challenger Tournament in Rennes, France a few days ago, shrugging off a disappointing US Open 2024 campaign.

After winning the ATP Challenger in Lincoln before the Grand Slam, the 23-year-old was expected to make waves in New York City in a similar manner when he challenged Novak Djokovic at Wimbledon earlier in the year. Unfortunately, the Edinburgh native failed to even qualify for the main draw of the New York-based major tournament.

However, the Texas Christian University alum had a memorable run in Rennes. Going up against Quentin Halys, with the crowd against him, the 2001-born star suffered a 0-6 bagel loss in the first set. At one period of the contest, the Frenchman also had two championship points. But the youngster showed a lot of resilience and character as he found a way to emerge victorious 7-6 (5), 6-3 in the final two sets.

Fearnley’s past week in the Northern region of France has been memorable, to say the least. First, he blew up on social media for defeating veteran Benoit Paire 6-1, 6-0 in merely 37 minutes. During the latter stage of the competition, Fearnley was also lauded for clinching straight-set wins over Adrian Mannarino and Harold Mayot.

Fearnley is slowly making a huge name for himself. Three months ago, he was the 525^th-ranked player on the ATP Tour. With this most recent success, the Brit is now ranked at a career-high of #129. However, despite this incredible feat, the competition that he gave Djokovic at SW19 will remain the highlight of his career.

Barring a shocking straight-sets loss against Carlos Alcaraz in the finals, Novak Djokovic had a fairly dominant run at the grass-court major tournament earlier in July. Out of all the remaining five (walkover against Alex de Minaur) encounters, Djokovic received his toughest competition in the second round of the Grand Slam against Fearnley.

While Djokovic defeated the likes of Lorenzo Musetti and Holger Rune in 33 games and 27 games, respectively, Fearnley pushed Nole to play a total of 43 games over four sets. The 3-hour 2-minute action-packed thriller did end in the Serb’s favor. But this fierce fight made Fearnley a hero amongst the hometown crowd and also got praised by the 24-time Grand Slam winner.

Fans will expect him to enter the top 100 in the rankings by the end of the 2024 season. Additionally, his next goals would include making deep runs in multiple ATP 250 and 500-level tournaments, and have hopes to qualify for all the main draws of Grand Slams from the next season onwards.