Britain’s Fearnly battles heckler to secure first win

Britain’s Jacob Fearnley overcame nerves in the big moments - and a heckler - to secure the first US Open main-draw win of his career.

Fearnley, 24, struggled with his service game before coming through 7-5 6-2 5-7 6-4 in a late-night battle with Spanish veteran Roberto Bautista Agut.

A first-service percentage of below 50% across the opening three sets led to 16 double faults, before Fearnley cleaned up his opening shot in the fourth to help get over the line.

“If you look at when the double faults were happening – serving for the match, serving to stay in the set – they came at the highest tension moments,” said Fearnley, who won in three hours and 24 minutes - the longest match of his career.

“Those ones are definitely down to nerves more than anything.”

The Scot was also put off by a rambunctious fan behind the baseline - who was initially loudly supporting him before switching to root for Bautista Agut.

“When I Iost the service game at 5-4 in the third he completely turned – I couldn’t believe it,” Fearnley said.

“I wanted to say something. He switched quick. It wasn’t abuse, just confusing and extremely loud. He didn’t say a nice thing after that.”

Fearnley was the only Briton to win at Flushing Meadows on Tuesday, with Katie Boulter, Sonay Kartal, Francesca Jones and Billy Harris all going out.

Now he is set for a rematch against German third seed Alexander Zverev in the second round on Thursday. 

(BBC sport)