Shifting to the US had lengthy been on Fearnley’s radar, and learning at TCU – the place fellow Britons Cameron Norrie and Alastair Grey had been alumni – appeared a logical alternative.
“I used to be all the time a bit bodily underdeveloped and college was a giant factor – my dad and mom wished me to have one thing to fall again on if tennis did not work,” Fearnley stated.
“I additionally did not really feel prepared mentally to play tennis. I wished 5 years to develop my sport, develop as an individual, socialise and meet new folks.”
When Fearnley arrived at TCU, teaching workers on the ‘Frogs’ noticed a shy 18-year-old initially held again on the court docket by self-doubt.
The character of US school tennis – all noise, trash speaking and group bonding – just isn’t for the faint-hearted.
“Faculty tennis is a really emotional type of tennis. There may be much more power from the gamers and different groups,” Devin Bowen, assistant coach of males’s tennis at TCU, instructed BBC Sport.
“It was a fantastic setting for Jake as a result of it examined him. It’s a good alternative to develop up, construct character and discover out who you might be.
“It’s thrilling and a whole lot of enjoyable. However it could additionally actually be brutal.”
Fearnley all the time had “one thing particular” however wanted time to belief his means, in response to former ATP doubles participant Bowen.
Ultimately he did.
A five-year spell in Fort Value introduced a bunch of particular person and group accolades, culminating in TCU’s first nationwide males’s tennis title.
“His thoughts used to get tremendous overly-dramatic,” Bowen stated.
“5 minutes earlier than the match he’d say ‘I can not discover the grip on my forehand. It is all falling aside’.
“I might say ‘you may settle in, your thoughts is enjoying methods on you’.
“Now he has expertise, and a bit knowledge, to know it’s what the thoughts does earlier than massive matches.”