Arthur Fery has already gone far beyond what Wimbledon expected from a wild card who is still outside the world’s top 100. Now he stands one win away from an even bigger breakthrough, with Flavio Cobolli waiting in the quarterfinals.
The British player has turned an open section of the draw into his own surprise run. He first had a winnable third-round match against Zizou Bergs, then produced another upset by beating Grigor Dimitrov.
A different kind of British hopeful
At only five feet, nine inches, Fery does not fit the usual image of a modern men’s tennis player. He makes up for that with sharp volleying and variation, a style that has made him popular with spectators.
His Wimbledon story has also carried a few memorable moments off the scoreline. In the first round, he put in earplugs while Damir Džumhur argued with the chair umpire, and later said in a news conference that he uses them regularly.
| Player | Route So Far | Notable Detail |
|---|---|---|
| Arthur Fery | Beat Zizou Bergs, then Grigor Dimitrov | Wild card, still outside the top 100 |
| Flavio Cobolli | Quarterfinal opponent | Fery beat him at the Australian Open in January |
Fery also drew attention for spotting Tim Henman, the British tennis figurehead, watching one of his matches, while not noticing Princess Catherine of Wales. For a player whose run was already bigger than expected, any further progress would be a bonus for the home crowd in a tournament that has been otherwise miserable for British tennis.
