A dream sequence became reality for British wild card Arthur Fery, booking a spot in the Wimbledon men’s singles semifinals by taking down No. 9 seed Flavio Cobolli on Centre Court on Wednesday.
Fery marched over Cobolli 6-4, 7-6 (4), 6-0 for the second time this year to advance to Friday’s semifinal matchup against Alexander Zverev, a straight sets winner on Wednesday over ailing Taylor Fritz, 6-4, 6-4, 6-2.
Fery, whose pre-match routine was anything but normal, was greeted as he entered the court by British Queen Camilla and had the packed stadium on its feet for much of the evening.
Cobolli was not at full health, citing a stomach bug as a hurdle, and was dominated by Fery in the third set. He finished it with a service ace and fell backward to the roar of the home crowd, with Queen Camilla and the Royal Box paces behind him on the baseline.
“It just gets better and better every match. I can’t believe it,” Fery said on the court, his voice barely detected over the chanting and applause.
Fery confessed he lost his sense of calm in the final set on the verge of making it to the semifinals.
“It’s incredible, playing on Centre Court for the second time. Just can’t believe it,” Fery said. “I knew I could do it, even though it was my first time in the quarterfinals and he’s done it before. Just kept going, was very nervous beforehand but kept going to the finish line.”
Fery, 23, is the first British men’s semifinalist in the Open era and only the fourth men’s wild card to reach the semifinals in a Grand Slam. It’s the 25th anniversary of Goran Ivanisevic going from wild card to Wimbledon champion in 2001. Jimmy Connors (1991 at the US Open) and Henri Leconte (1992 French Open) are the only others to advance to the final four of a major as wild cards.
Fery grew up less than a mile from the All England Club.
Zverev is in the semifinals here for the first time and has been tested at Wimbledon, starting with a near upset against Belgium’s Alexander Blockx in the first round before pulling out a 4-6, 7-6 (8), 6-7 (5-7), 6-7 (0) win. He might be favored over Fery, but crowd support figures to be a no-contest.
“It’s OK. You guys can all be for Fery. That’s totally fine. I understand it,” Zverev said Wednesday, noting he could hear the cheers for Fery from Court 1.
“I hope (the match goes) good for me, not so good for everyone else. But no, look, I think it’s going to be an exciting day for both of us. First-time semifinals for both of us at Wimbledon.
“For him, of course, it’s a fairy tale story for Arthur Fery. You see what I did there? Yeah, there you go … Very clever. But I think I have to trust myself, I have to trust my tennis and hopefully I can just show a good performance and then we’ll see what happens.”
Fritz, who earlier this year took a break of more than seven weeks to deal with right knee tendinitis, required a medical timeout during the match to have the same knee checked.
An All-American at Stanford, Fery entered Wimbledon ranked No. 114 with only two career victories at the ATP Tour level before beginning the grass court segment of the schedule, one being the January win over Cobolli in the first round of the Australian Open.
Fery’s victory was his first against a top-10 opponent.
–Field Level Media
