LONDON, United Kingdom (AFP) — Not many players can boast victories over Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner but British rookie Jacob Fearnley has notched up that impressive double and now looks for a third in the shape of Novak Djokovic at Wimbledon.

Fearnley’s wins over reigning Wimbledon champion Alcaraz and world No.1 Sinner came in his junior days.

Since then, their career paths have taken radically different directions — Alcaraz and Sinner are winning Grand Slams and banking millions of dollars while Fearnley headed to university in the United States.

“I played Alcaraz when he was maybe 14, I was 17. Sinner, I played him maybe when we were 15,” the 22-year-old Fearnley said on Tuesday.

“Obviously, the strides they’ve taken in their games have been a lot more than myself. The way they’re playing, it’s unbelievable.”

“I don’t think I can really take anything from those victories.”

Fearnley won his first Grand Slam match on debut on Tuesday; it was also his first win of any kind on the main tour.

Before seeing off Spain’s Alejandro Moro Canas 7-5, 6-4, 7-6 (14/12), his only professional match on the ATP tour came in Eastbourne last week where he was a first-round loser.

The week before, however, he illustrated his prowess on grass courts by coming out of qualifying to win a second-tier Challenger event in Nottingham.

“It’s a bit crazy,” said Fearnley, the world No. 277.

He was referring to a month which also saw him help Texas Christian University win the national championships in the US at the end of his five-year college career.

Fearnley has already faced one Wimbledon giant in his time — at the 2018 tournament, he was drafted in as a hitting partner for Roger Federer.

“That was really cool. He’s a super nice guy. Obviously a really, really special player. I learned a lot of things from those brief practice sessions,” he said.

Now he faces comfortably one of the most daunting tasks in the sport — trying to defeat seven-time Wimbledon champion Djokovic in the second round on Thursday.