How Arthur Fery made Wimbledon history with wildcard semi-final run after beating Flavio Cobolli

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Arthur Fery wowed the home crowds with an emphatic straight-sets win over Flavio Cobolli in the Wimbledon quarter-finals, but that was not all he achieved with his victory. Rather, the British star is emulating another famous wildcard, someone who went on to lift the title...

Highlights: Fery's fairytale run continues as semi-finals take shape

Video credit: SNTV

Fery was ranked 114th in the world coming into Wimbledon, and needed a wildcard to secure his direct entry to the draw.

He did win his opening-round match at the All England Club last year, but he fell at the first hurdle in the main draw in 2023 and 2024 and failed to qualify in 2021 and 2022.

He also won one round at the Australian Open earlier this season, beating Cobolli before losing to Tomas Martin Etcheverry in the second round.

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But that sort of record did not exactly set the tone for what Fery has managed to achieve this year in a roasting hot corner of London.

The Briton was made to work hard for his early wins, beating Damir Dzumhur in four sets before also needing four to see off Otto Virtanen.

He needed over four-and-a-half hours to beat Zizou Bergs in five, and nearly four hours in his thriller against Grigor Dimitrov that also went the distance.

He saved the best for his debut Grand Slam quarter-final, beating ninth-seed Cobolli in just over two hours in straight sets, and in doing so becoming the first wildcard to make it to the Wimbledon semi-finals since Goran Ivanisevic in 2001.

That year, the Croatian went on to lift the trophy, edging out Pat Rafter in five sets in a match that made history on more than one account, finishing on Monday due to bad weather.

As such, Fery is already in fine company, but whether he can emulate Ivanisevic remains to be seen.

The differences between the two are stark - Ivanisevic was awarded his wildcard after injury dropped him down the rankings, and he had already made the finals of Wimbledon three times before he won the title.

By contrast, Fery is a relative newbie to the professional men’s tour. Indeed, when you look at who has the least ATP level wins before making their maiden Grand Slam semi-final, Fery is fourth on the list with just 11.

Only John McEnroe, Aslan Karatsev and Mark Edmondson have made it to a semi-final having won less, but two of those went on to win at least one Grand Slam, which bodes well for the 23-year-old.

What bodes less well is the length of time it has taken him to make it to the semi-finals. His match time sits at 16 hours 26 minutes.

His opponent in the semis, Alexander Zverev, has been on court for just 12 hours 54 minutes. Those two have never met, with French Open winner Zverev on a good run of form having won 15 of his last 16 matches.

But Fery will have the crowd on his side when he takes to Centre Court on Friday, as the British fans get ready to cheer on the latest home semi-finalist.

And while fellow Brits Cam Norrie and Tim Henman could not go one step further this century and make the final after reaching the last four in the men's competition, Andy Murray could and did - and that is who Fery will be trying to emulate as he seeks to make some more history at SW19.

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