Another Slam, another big name – Fearnley faces Wawrinka challenge on day two

French Open 2025

Location: Roland Garros, May 25 – June

When Stan Wawrinka made his French Open debut in 2005, Jacob Fearnley, a British national, was one month away from his fourth birthday.

Twenty years later, Fearnley will face the 40-year-old former champion in a Roland Garross match.

World No. 55 Fearnley has the potential and youthful vigor to defeat 2015 champion Wawrinka despite the gap in his clay-related experience.

The Swiss veteran, who has dropped to 138th in the rankings, won the second major of the year on a wildcard and has only won two matches in Paris since 2020.

When your opponents have won a lot on such big stages and been successful for so long, “I think you have to give them a certain amount of respect,” Fearnley said.

“But I believe the difficulty is perhaps not treating them with too much respect, so that you enter the match feeling defeated.

Wawrinka has obviously accomplished incredible things, but I must keep in mind that I’m both here to win and to play a match.

“I will always approach each situation with respect and a sense of triumph.”

On court 14, Fearnley and Wawrinka play for about 14:00 BST, with three more Britons playing on the following day.

Emma Raducanu plays Wang Xinyu from China at 10:00 BST, where Jodie Burrage and Danielle Collins square off immediately after Jodie Burrage and Danielle Collins. This is her first French Open match since 2022.

Fearnley is starting to draw attention-grabbing shots at famous faces all the time.

The 23-year-old Scot rose to the occasion when he made his Grand Slam debut last year against Novak Djokovic on Wimbledon’s Centre Court, but a gloomy atmosphere prevented him from defeating Nick Kyrgios in the Australian Open first round in January.

On his final performance in Rome, he played veteran Italian actor Fabio Fognini, who like Kyrgios, a firebrand who rouses partisan fervor, in a more recent role.

Fearnley told BBC Sport, “I joked about it with my team because I knew Richard Gasquet would play in his final French Open.”

Wawrinka is about to end their careers but still has excellent tennis playing.

Prior to last month, Fearnley hadn’t even played an ATP clay-court match.

He was unranked in the professional tennis game at the time last year, but he is still a member of the “brutal” United States college tennis system, where he developed his aggressive game.

He climbed into the professional ranks after earning his kinesiology degree at Texas Christian University, leading to one of the fastest rises in ATP Tour history.

Fearnley has climbed to the top 50, tying Cameron Norrie for the title of the British men’s number two, as he did with Cameron Norrie.

Fearnley remarked, “We had just won our first national championships at TCU a year ago.”

It’s pretty amazing to see the progression and then play the main draw at the French Open a year later.

“I’m very pleased with the progress, but I still have to believe it.”

Still a ” pinch-me ” moment when you have to face-to-face with the superstars in the locker room.

“I still feel star-gazed.” Fearnley continued, “Like in Rome, Jannik] Sinner approached and shaked my hand.