British wild card Arthur Fery reaches Wimbledon semifinals
If he keeps playing like this, Arthur Fery might just become Wimbledon royalty. Fery grew up five minutes from the All England Club and now the 114th-ranked player is a semifinalist at grass-court Grand Slam.
The 23-year-old British player, who needed a wild-card invitation to enter the tournament, beat ninth-seeded Flavio Cobolli 6-4, 7-6 (4), 6-0 on Centre Court in front of roaring home fans and a Royal Box contingent that included Britain’s Queen Camilla on Wednesday.
His run has been dubbed a “Fairy Tale” and has included a viewing by Kate, the Princess of Wales, earlier in the tournament.
“It gets better and better every match,” Fery said in an on-court interview. “I just can’t believe it.”
The only other wild card to have reached the men’s singles semifinals at the All England Club was Goran Ivanisevic in his run to the Wimbledon title in 2001.
Fery earned a standing ovation after winning the first set. The deafening roar that followed Fery taking the tiebreaker to seal the second set was heard over at Wimbledon’s other main stadium - No. 1 Court, where Alexander Zverev was in the process of beating Taylor Fritz in straight sets.
Fery sealed his memorable victory with an ace and fell onto his back to soak in the applause.
“That last game, I felt emotions that I hadn’t experienced before in my life,” he said.
A short time later, Zverev wrapped up his 6-4, 6-4, 6-2 win to set up a semifinal against Fery on Friday.
Moments before the start of their quarterfinal match, Fery and Cobolli were surprised to meet Camilla in the hallway moments before they walked onto court. “She came to say hello, she introduced herself to both me and Flavio,” Fery said.
