AUSTRALIAN OPEN

January 11, 2025

Jacob Fearnley

Press Conference

THE MODERATOR: Jacob, what was your reaction when you looked at the draw?

JACOB FEARNLEY: Yeah, it was a bit of anxiety, for sure. It's not kind of a match you want to see in Australia. I know that the crowd's going to be against me.

Obviously there was a lot of excitement, as well, because it's not a common match. But no, really excited, but also a bit of nervousness, for sure.

THE MODERATOR: Questions.

Q. Is it going to be a college vibe?

JACOB FEARNLEY: As close as it's going to get, yeah. I think it's going to be a little bit more than college. Hopefully some of my experiences at college will help me on Monday.

Q. What have you learned from heated crowds in those situations?

JACOB FEARNLEY: I mean, try to ignore them as best as you can. Obviously I've been to some pretty hostile environments. Probably not as many people as going to be watching on Monday.

Definitely had some nasty things thrown in my direction. You just kind of have to ignore it and move on.

Q. Nick is going to turn this into a zoo out there. When you say you want to ignore it and just focus on your game, what techniques do you employ to help you do that? How do you in the moment execute that?

JACOB FEARNLEY: I don't really know. I think we'll see on Monday how I handle it. Obviously, like I said, it's probably going to be escalated than what I'm used to.

I think the best thing I can do is just try to enjoy is at best as I can. Obviously focusing on myself is one kind of thing. I understand that's going to be very difficult to do.

I'm just going to try to enjoy it as best I can and embrace it. Still pretty early in my career. To have an opportunity and an experience like this is really cool.

Q. What have you been working on since the end of last season? There were things you were looking to improve.

JACOB FEARNLEY: Obviously kind of made some small changes. Changed my serve a little bit to try and help my kind of overall body. Obviously I've had some injuries in the past. Nothing too serious. I think for longevity, considering the increase in the kind of matches I've been playing, I think some changes were necessary in terms of that.

Yeah, kind of spent quite a lot of time in the gym trying to just get a bit stronger. I think that was kind of the main goal. It was my first kind of real pre-season, off-season, if you will, so it was all a bit new for me.

So we wanted to try and set a base, because it is my first year on tour, so I would say those are the things.

Q. I imagine you've had lots of messages from friends and family being excited about it. Anyone you might lean on for advice playing Nick? Andy is here.

JACOB FEARNLEY: I haven't really spoken to anyone. I actually deleted Instagram. I was getting a lot of messages (smiling).

Q. Based on the draw?

JACOB FEARNLEY: I think so. It was kind of something that I wanted to kind of try and stay as centered as possible. Obviously my coach is here. I'm sure he's doing a lot of kind of talking around.

Obviously Nick has played some big matches. There's a lot of stuff out there of matches of his. I'll probably watch some of them and I can see. But he kind of keeps you on your toes when you're out there. You don't really know what to expect.

Q. Nick is obviously a Marmite figure, maybe Vegemite out here. Are you a fan? Do you like when he brings to tennis?

JACOB FEARNLEY: Yeah, I'm a huge fan. I've always said to my friends that I'm a big fan. I think, yeah, there's some people out there that don't agree with the stuff he does. But I think it's great for the sport. He increases viewership. He puts people in seats. I think that's great for the sport.

You can't really take anything away from him on that front. Obviously what he does on the tennis court is pretty incredible, as well. Aside from like kind of what he is outside the court, on the court he does some incredible things. I think that's great for the sport.

Q. Playing Novak at Wimbledon Centre Court, what can you take from that experience? How much of a better player do you think you are now than six months ago?

JACOB FEARNLEY: Yeah, obviously it's a huge kind of thing for me to have experienced. I think playing in front of a big stadium, a big court like that, obviously I thought that the crowd was mostly on my side at Wimbledon, because obviously I was British playing my home slam.

I think the difference is there's not going to be that much support coming for me. I can take a lot from it. The way I was able to handle it, I did a good job. Hopefully I can just trying to improve my maturity in those moments. Obviously every match is new. We don't know what's going to happen. Hopefully I can use that experience in my favor.

Q. You've been playing full time pretty much for six months. Pretty crazy. Have you surprised yourself at all over the past six months?

JACOB FEARNLEY: Yeah, definitely surprised myself. Not something that I expected or set out as a goal. It's really cool. I'm kind of trying to, like I said, embrace all these moments that are coming my way.

Super grateful for the opportunity that I have, the position I'm in. Yeah, it's pretty crazy. Yeah, I'm very excited.

Q. Were you able to reflect on what you did during the off-season?

JACOB FEARNLEY: A little bit. Not too much. I was kind of more focusing on the tennis and the fitness. Obviously I've had moments of realization that, more actually while I've been out here in Australia, that this is pretty cool and it's a big step forward.

Q. Back to your days of dealing with hostile crowds at TCU, what was your kind of approach? Were you always just trying to block it out and focus, or did you sometimes fall into getting involved and giving some back, trash talking or anything like that?

JACOB FEARNLEY: No, no, none of that. I'm not really that kind of guy. I definitely won't be doing that on Monday (smiling). I've never been that kind of guy.

Also in college it's a little bit different because you have five other of your teammates that are playing alongside of you. Obviously when you're out on the tour you're kind of alone out there. That's kind of the difference, something that is definitely I'm going to have to adapt to also.