My cherimoya hasn’t grown in the 2 years since planted. Lost cause?

I’m in a Mediterranean climate (South Australia, zone 10 for USA): very dry hot summers without rain or humidity, cool rainy winters.

I bought this cherimoya as a 7 foot tall, 2 year old seedlings started from seed. The backyard grower who sold it lives 10 miles from me and had several large leafy cherimoyas in the ground.

The tree hasn’t grown since I planted it two winters ago. It’s in a west-facing spot. It’s entering its second spring now. My plum and peach trees are thriving but the cherimoya hasn’t done anything except grow a few 1” leaves, and summer’s only a month away!

Do you think this tree still has a chance of growing into a thriving tree? The seller said that maybe it just needs to establish its roots first. But my instinct says it’s a lost cause. Going by how easily the leaves burn, I’m feeling this is a sub-tropical tree unsuitable for my yard’s conditions (my avocados died pretty easily once the weather turned hot and the sun burned their leaves to death).

I`ve read they take a good long time before they even think about fruiting (4 years min) and that they are really easily devastated by fungal disease, so your long dry summer may actually be really good for it.
It can take serious heat (I am in the equiv of zone 9b and it`s too cool for them here, to give you an idea, it wants 10+) as long as it gets watered enough. My uncle who lives up past the tropic has some and they fruit up well, but they still to a certain extent look like the Charlie Brown Christmas tree- not a lush green tree by any means.
I did read that you`re not supposed to plant them in the winter, only in the summer, so it may still be playing catch up. it has young growth, I`d keep it watered this summer and fertilize it well, and see what happens.

It looks like it has a potassium deficiency from the brown leaf edges, but could also be boron toxicity, they look similar.  A 7' tree is a lot to keep alive for the root mass that probably came with it. It's common for large potted trees to struggle a few years till the roots catch up to the top after planting. Maybe this year it will leap into growth like the old saying, the first year they sleep, the second year they creep, and the third year they leap. Either way it's awesome that you have it.