Jacob Fearnley’s debut campaign at Queen’s has come to an end.
The 23-year-old is enjoying a stellar 2025 season in which he broke into the world’s top 50 for the first time.
He reached his best results at the Australian and French Open tournaments and will aim to replicate that feat at Wimbledon.
To help prepare for his campaign at SW19, Fearnley played at Queen’s for the first time and he certainly made a good impression.
What did Andy Murray’s former coach Leon Smith tell Jacob Fearnley after his Queen’s exit?
Jacob Fearnley picked up two impressive wins against qualifiers Alex Bolt and Corentin Moutet at Queen’s.
As a result he reached the quarter-finals and faced the dangerous Jiri Lehecka, who had not dropped a set until that point in the tournament.
He continued that trend as Lehecka defeated Fearnley 7-5, 6-2 on Friday, leaving the Brit just short of becoming the seventh man from his country since 1980 to reach the Queen’s semifinals.
Post-match Britain’s Davis Cup captain and Andy Murray’s former coach Leon Smith spoke with Fearnley and reminded him of the positive week he had despite losing to Lehecka.
“I was covering that match, and I actually saw him in the player lounge afterwards in his team, and I reminded him as well. Don’t forget what people are doing here,” Smith told BBC Sport.
“Yes, it stings losing that match and the way he lost it. But you’ve made a qualifying tour event. You were 600 in the world 12 months ago. You’ve had one year, one year of learning this level.
“So of course there’s going to be some doubts that come in. You go from college tennis when you’re winning a ton of matches, week in and week out. He comes on to the Challenger Tour and just blitzes through it, winning four or five matches every single week.
“Then you become the tour player and it’s like, win one, lose one, lose one, win a couple, lose. That’s a different feeling for him to get his head around. He’s opened up to me at Davis Cup about how he’s feeling, and that’s actually half the battle is bringing it out.
“He’s brought a mental coach over with him for the whole of the grass season that has been working with. That tells me a lot about someone who’s prepared to talk about it, and it’s not a taboo subject, and that way he’ll get better results longer term.”
Jacob Fearnley loses to Jiri Lehecka at Queen’s
Fearnley took on Jiri Lehecka for the first time and the world number 30 was too strong for the Brit at Queen’s.
Fearnley grabbed the first break of serve in the match but after serving three double faults, he lost his serve in the very next game.
Fearnley ultimately lost serve again, and Lehecka went on to claim the first set; and from there he never looked back.
Fearnley was left to reflect on what might have been as his 10 double faults proved costly. He missed out on the chance to set up an all-English semi-final against Jack Draper.
British number one Draper defeated Brandon Nakashima 6-4, 5-7, 6-4 to reach the Queen’s semi-finals for the first time and secure a number four seed at the Wimbledon Championships.
