Twelve months in the past, Fearnley was nonetheless a college pupil in the USA and enjoying tournaments on the third-tier ITF Tour.
Whereas all eyes had been on the celebs at Melbourne Park, he was celebrating profitable an M25 title in Luxembourg.
Now, having climbed into the world’s prime 100 in one in every of quickest rises on the ATP Tour, Fearnley is on an equal footing with the easiest.
Inflicting a seismic shock would have seen Fearnley grow to be solely the seventh man to achieve the Melbourne final 16 on his debut.
Zverev is among the largest servers within the sport and it was little shock that Fearnley, regardless of being a pointy returner, couldn’t initially get into his opponent’s service video games.
There was little distinction between the pair in a decent first set and Fearnley dropping his serve to like within the sixth sport was decisive.
A worrying signal was Fearnley gingerly transferring between factors in direction of the tip of the set with what appeared to be a decrease again problem.
After Zverev secured the lead, Fearnley disappeared off courtroom for a medical time-out and he returned wanting extra comfortable.
He was unable to take two break factors within the second sport and seemed to have paid the worth when Zverev broke for a 4-2 lead.
Staying unfazed is among the Scot’s largest strengths and he responded with an aggressive returning sport to hit straight again.
Nonetheless, he was damaged once more instantly and Zverev confidently served out to take a two-set lead.
These lapses of focus on the odd service sport additionally proved expensive within the third set.
Whereas he took Zverev’s serve for a second time to stage at 2-2, Fearnley couldn’t maintain his stage or focus and was damaged within the subsequent sport for a lead which Zverev wouldn’t relinquish.
