Irish father's pride with son set to make Wimbledon debut
The 2025 iteration of the famous grass-court Grand-Slam kicked off on Monday, and while all eyes will be on the likes of Coco Gauff and Carlos Alcaraz over the next fortnight, for Irish fans, Tuesday could well belong to James Fernandez-McCabe.
Fernandez-McCabe, a 21-year-old who represents Australia, will make his Wimbledon debut tomorrow when he takes on World number 58 Fabian Marozsan of Hungary.
Ranked 123 places lower, James will have his work cut out for him as he looks to progress to the second-round at the All-England club. Speaking on RTE Radio's Oliver Callan show, Fernandez-McCabe admitted that the whole experience was a bit 'overwhelming', but that the thought of stepping out onto the famous courts gave him 'goosebumps.'
James' father, Patrick, is originally from Walkinstown in Dublin. He moved to Australia in 1997 when he was just a year older than James is now, where he married Irene - James' mother.
Taking up the sport as a youngster, James' father didn't have the money for top of the range, professional tennis lessons, so YouTube became the starlet's main instructor.
James also excelled at other sports but went all in on tennis and is now preparing for the biggest match of his life.
"That is my childhood. Maybe it wasn't normal at the time," he said.
"It builds character and without it I wouldn't be where I am now. So I'm just grateful. I'm lucky."
Speaking about James' early days in the sport, Patrick said "I got carried away early days. I was probably a bit hard on him ... but you do what you have to do."
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