Who is rising Scottish tennis star Jacob Fearnley?

Scotland has a new tennis prospect who could potentially be ready to fill the void left by the retirement of legendary player Andy Murray last year.

Jacob Fearnley is quickly gaining a reputation as a rising star of the sport and he added to the growing esteem with his performance against Nick Kyrgios in the first round of the Australia Open.

The 23-year-old, from Dalkeith, raced into a 2-0 lead at the John Cain arena in Melbourne on Monday before winning the match in a tie-breaker to seal a 3-0 victory and book his place in the second round.

He will now come up against Frenchman Arthur Cazaux.

Who is Jacob Fearnley?

After turning professional last season, he shot into the top 100 rankings after a string of impressive performances, including taking a set off of Novak Djokovic at Wimbledon, that earned him a place at his first Australian Open.

Fearnley had only left college a couple of weeks before winning the first of four titles on the second-tier Challenger Tour in Nottingham in June.

He has since had a meteoric rise up the rankings from 646 a year ago to 86 currently.

In his younger days, Fearnley attended Merchiston Castle all-boys boarding school in Edinburgh, where started to develop his tennis skills.

As a top-ranked junior he competed against, and defeated, the likes of Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner who would go on to become grand slam champions.

He then moved to the States to attend the Texas Christian University where he combined his work on the tennis court with studying for a degree in kinesiology.

Fearnley then returned to the UK and turned professional last year before rising to prominence by winning the ATP Challenger Tour title in Nottingham after defeating Dan Evans, Billy Harris and Charles Broom on his way to the trophy.

That victory earned him a place at Wimbledon last summer as a wildcard and he won his first round clash with fellow debutant Alejandro Moro Canas.

That victory then handed him the opportunity to take on Novak Djokovic in the second round and, despite defeat, he was praised for his performance and winning a set against the Serbian.

His performances since then have seen him included in Britain’s Davis Cup squad and break into the top-100 world rankings.

Victory over Kyrgios in Australia has only raised expectations and excitement even further as Scotland hopes for another tennis star to captivate the nation the way Murray has over the last 20 years.