SERBIAN star Novak Djokovic got a little more than he bargained for against unknown 22-year-old Brit Jacob Fearnley, with the world number 277 pushing the 24-time Grand Slam winner across three hours in a four-set match on Centre Court at Wimbledon.

In a David vs Goliath story, the Edinburgh local was ranked outside the top 1000 this time last year at Wimbledon, and despite only being in his third ATP Tour match of his career, did not let the world number two blow him away. In fact, it was quite the opposite.

Fearnley had the crowd support behind him despite the vocal Wimbledon fanbase knowing the monumental task that confronted him. In what was tipped to be an easy straight sets win for one of the tournament favourites, Fearnley made his life difficult to the point he even forced a fourth set off one of the greatest players of all-time.

The Scottish local earned a spot in the draw after winning the Nottingham Challenger in June, and he showed fantastic tenacity to keep fighting against a player who has put so many away quickly before him. While still under an injury cloud due to knee surgery leading into the tournament, the world number two was still able to inflict plenty of damage and ended up winning 6-3 6-4 5-7 7-5.

“I hope as the tournament progresses I’ll feel better,” Djokovic said post-match. “I don’t know if I was comfortable in my own skin in the third and fourth. You have rough days when you’re not feeling your best.

“The muscles around my knee are getting sore more than usual because they’re compensating and protecting the knee, which is normal. They’re also not really giving me the dynamic speed and power that I need. Kind of late on the balls that I’m normally not late on. 

“I should have done some things better in the third when I was a break up, and a bit lucky in the fourth not to go a break down. Potentially the match deserved to go into a fifth set the way Jacob played – but I’m very glad it didn’t.”

Fearnley will almost triple his career earnings to-date by reaching the second round and no doubt have a memory that will last a lifetime. For Djokovic, it is back to business as usual after that challenge, heading into the third round where he will face Australian Alexei Popyrin.

AROUND THE COURTS

The bottom quarter of the draw has been opened up by a couple of French qualifiers making it through in Lucas Pouille and Quentin Halys. The former defeated Thanasi Kokkinakis who retired 2-5 down in the third set, while the latter upset 21st seed Karen Khachanov in a five-set epic contest.

Rising star Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard blew Japan’s Yoshihito Nishioka in just 71 minutes, serving 27 aces and never looking like losing in the 6-4 6-1 6-2 win to continue his run as a lucky loser. Arthur Fils joined the procession of Frenchmen into the third round with an upset four-set victory over Hubert Hurkacz, while Gael Monfils wound back the clock to prevail over fellow veteran Stan Wawrinka in a tight three-set clash.

Aussie Alex de Minaur progressed off the back of a straight sets win over Jaume Munar, while shortly after another huge upset took place with Finn talent Emil Ruusuvuori losing out two nail-biting tiebreakers to eventually defeat Greek 11th seed Stefanos Tsitsipas in four sets.