Transferring to the US had lengthy been on Fearnley’s radar, and learning at TCU – the place fellow Britons Cameron Norrie and Alastair Grey have been alumni – appeared a logical selection.
“I used to be all the time a bit bodily underdeveloped and college was an enormous factor – my mother and father needed me to have one thing to fall again on if tennis did not work,” Fearnley mentioned.
“I additionally did not really feel prepared mentally to play tennis. I needed 5 years to develop my recreation, develop as an individual, socialise and meet new folks.”
When Fearnley arrived at TCU, teaching employees 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 – will not be for the faint-hearted.
“School tennis is a really emotional type of tennis. There’s much more vitality from the gamers and different groups,” Devin Bowen, assistant coach of males’s tennis at TCU, informed BBC Sport.
“It was an ideal surroundings for Jake as a result of it examined him. It’s a good alternative to develop up, construct character and discover out who you’re.
“It’s thrilling and a variety of enjoyable. However it could possibly additionally actually be brutal.”
Fearnley all the time had “one thing particular” however wanted time to belief his skill, in accordance with former ATP doubles participant Bowen.
Finally 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 mentioned.
“5 minutes earlier than the match he’d say ‘I can not discover the grip on my forehand. It is all falling aside’.
“I would say ‘you may settle in, your thoughts is taking part in tips on you’.
“Now he has expertise, and somewhat knowledge, to know it’s what the thoughts does earlier than large matches.”