Roland Garros 2025: Jacob Fearnley knocks out former champion Stan Wawrinka in straight sets
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Jacob Fearnley ticked off another new milestone in his career after knocking out former champion Stan Wawrinka to get his first win at Roland Garros.
The 23-year-old beat the three-time Grand Slam champion 7-6(6), 6-3, 6-2 in two hours and six minutes to progress to the second round.
Fearnley has now won on his main draw debut at each of the three Grand Slams he’s featured at so far (Wimbledon, Australian Open and Roland Garros).
It’s also his third career victory over a former top 10 opponent (Kei Nishikori, Fabio Fognini and Wawrinka).
The British No.2 moves on to the second round where he will face 22nd seed Ugo Humbert.
"Crowd were definitely on Stan's side, rightly so," Fearnley said after the match. "I kind of expected that going in, I knew it was going to be a tough crowd.
"Obviously that court kind of feels quite close. But no, I really enjoyed it. Some tough moments. Yeah, I can definitely sit here and say it was a great day, for sure."
After an exchange of breaks early in the match, both players quickly found their rhythm and got stuck into what was a high-quality opening set.
Looking to capitalise on his experience at this level, Wawrinka put Fearnley under pressure on several occasions but each time the Briton rose to the challenge.
Serving at 15-30 at 5-4 down against a former major champion, Fearnley struck one of his best backhands of the match to draw level and then on a crucial deuce point, landed an ace straight down the tee to eventually win the game.
Fearnley wasn’t going to let the occasion get to him and deep into the tie-break, level at 6-6, he produced two unreturnable backhands cross court to take the one set lead.
The opening set was always going to be crucial up against an opponent like Wawrinka with the crowd behind him and Fearnley only used that momentum to shift through the gears.
The Briton got the first break of the second set for a 3-1 lead after Wawrinka blasted a forehand wide as the first signs of trouble began to show for the Swiss star.
Fearnley only dropped seven points on serve during an impressive second set and quicky found himself a break up and on his way to victory in the third.
There were signs of life for Wawrinka who sparked the crowd into a frenzy as he broke back to level at 2-2, but Fearnley dealt with the adversity well.
Well experienced in dealing with noisy crowds from his time at Texas Christian University in the NCAA, Fearnley quickly shrugged it off. The Briton got his fourth break of the match in the following game, which started a run of four straight games to add another Grand Slam victory to the bank.
Earlier in the day, Emma Raducanu came through in three sets against Wang Xinyu, while Jodie Burrage lost out to Danielle Collins. Keep up with all the results and updates from Roland Garros
