JACOB Fearnley was blown away when he went to Wimbledon last year as a spectator, writes Stewart Fisher. Now he can’t wait to see what it feels like to compete there in his own right. Along with Aidan McHugh and Connor Thompson, the promising 16-year-old from Merchiston Castle school in Edinburgh is one of three Scots in the boys’ singles this year and he is first up today against Daniel Michalksi of Poland.
“I went down last year and there was such a great atmosphere watching and around the park,” said Fearnley, who not only rubbed shoulders with former greats such as Tim Henman at the Brodies Tennis Invitational at Gleneagles two weeks ago but practised with Roger Federer on the eve of the tournament. “I came down in the first week, before the juniors were playing, and I saw Rafa Nadal play first then Andy [Murray] played [Fabio] Fognini. It was good just to see how big Centre Court actually was, and how small the court looks compared to the stadium. The noise, the excitement is great.”
Fearnley has been tennis since the age of three, but watching Andy Murray win Wimbledon at the age of 12 helped him see that success at world level is achievable for players from Scotland. “Andy is probably my big hero, I would have just turned 12 when Andy Murray won that first Wimbledon title and when I saw that it gave me that extra boost. People started to play more tennis and I started to take it more seriously.”
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