ATP Tour

Fery 'Proud of fighting spirit' & excited for new life following Wimbledon run

Arthur Fery’s dream Wimbledon run came to an end on Friday at the hands of Alexander Zverev, but the British wild card is proud of his efforts following his stunning semi-final showing in southwest London.

In a career-changing 12 days, the 23-year-old overcame Damir Dzumhur, Otto Virtanen, Zizou Bergs, Grigor Dimitrov and Top-10 star Flavio Cobolli. However, he was unable to deal with Zverev’s firepower throughout their two-hour, 13-minute meeting, with the German striking 44 winners to Fery’s 13.

“I am most proud of how I handled the progression of the tournament and how I kept going in every match,” Fery said in his post-match press conference. “It would have been easy to just let Zizou Bergs run away with his two breaks in the fourth and go on holiday and come back.

”I just kept fighting, came back to the match court every time and gave my best. Was mentally locked in. Yeah, I lacked a bit of that today. It might have been just a step too far. The opponent was a step up again. That's what I was most proud of, never letting go and really pushing myself to the limit.”

Fery is just the fifth British man to reach the Wimbledon semi-finals in the Open Era after two-time champ Murray, Roger Taylor, Tim Henman and Cameron Norrie.

The 23-year-old has received a huge amount of support both on site at The Championships and across Great Britain with Fery mania hitting hard.

"It's been new to me for these past two weeks, having so much support, so many fans, so much support on social media and on Henman Hill, Murray Mount, whatever you want to call it,” Fery said.

“It's something I have to get used to if I keep playing well, which I hope I will. It's awesome. It pushes me to do better and give my best on the court.”

World No. 114 Fery was also the lowest-ranked player to advance to the last four at Wimbledon since No. 125 Goran Ivanisevic in 2001, when the Croatian famously lifted the trophy as a wild card.

Fery’s dream run has lifted him up 78 spots to No. 36 in the PIF ATP Live Rankings, while he has earned £900,000 in prize money, more than his combined singles and doubles career earnings prior to his run.

“It's going to change things, for sure,” Fery said looking ahead. “I'm going to be able to play Tour events at least for a full year, hopefully for more. It's going to be interesting to see how I deal with that change and everything that brings in terms of expectations from myself, from the public, from everyone.

“I am already looking forward to that. It's going to be a challenge to deal with all of that, but I'm conscious of it already, and that's the first step.”