Jacob Fearnley progressed to the second round of the US Open with a four-set victory over Roberto Bautista Agut, but the British player was left scratching his head at the behaviour of one spectator.
The 24-year-old won 7-5, 6-2, 5-7, 6-4 in a contest lasting nearly three and a half hours, yet his attention was drawn to a fan who appeared to change loyalties midway through the match. Fearnley said the supporter cheered for him for most of the match before switching to back his opponent late in the third set.
"When I lost the service game at 5-4 in the third he completely turned – I couldn't believe it," Fearnley explained. "It wasn't abuse, just confusing and extremely loud. He didn't say a nice thing after that." The Brit will now face world No.3 Alexander Zverev, having been ranked outside the top 500 just over a year ago.
Fearnley, who is set to move just outside the top 50 in the ATP standings, acknowledged the scale of the challenge ahead. "Even though I've had some pretty big match experience, it's still all relatively new for me," he said. "Just sometimes in those big moments, I need to be a little bit more clear and that will come with experience."
His victory was one of four for British players in the opening round, with Jack Draper, Cam Norrie and Emma Raducanu also progressing. However, Katie Boulter and Sonay Kartal both went out, losing to Marta Kostyuk and Beatriz Haddad Maia respectively.
