Arthur Fery’s fairytale run at Wimbledon will collide with a man on a repeat major mission Friday when the Briton takes on Alexander Zverev for a spot in the championship match.
The 23-year-old Fery has been one of the stories of the 2026 edition of the grass-court Slam. Having won just six tour-level matches prior to this fortnight, he has stunned a series of opponents — including Top-10 star Flavio Cobolli in the quarter-finals — to become just the second wild card to reach a Wimbledon semi-final after 2001 titlist Goran Ivanisevic.
Yet Fery will face his biggest task yet in the last four at The All England Club. Zverev, the No. 3 player in the PIF ATP Rankings, is on a 12-match winning streak at Grand Slams having finally broken his trophy duck at that level last month at Roland Garros. The German will hope that the sentiment behind the local adage, ‘Like London buses: You wait ages for one — then two come along at once’, will soon be applicable to his chase for major trophies.
“Zverev is a step up again. I'm ready for it,” Fery said in his post-match press conference after defeating Cobolli on Wednesday afternoon on Centre Court. “I have nothing to lose. I'm just going to go out there and just put my game on the court, do what I've done, believe in myself. We'll see where that takes me.”
The 29-year-old Zverev had not been past the fourth round in nine Wimbledon appearances prior to this year. The German on Wednesday snapped his seven-match losing streak against Taylor Fritz in impressive fashion to book his semi-final spot and complete the set of last-four appearances at all four majors. He believes his recent triumph on the Paris clay has had a knock-on effect to his performances on the London grass.
“I think winning Roland Garros definitely helps for sure,” Zverev said when asked about his confidence level so far this fortnight at Wimbledon. “There's no question about it. But I think I changed my game a bit for grass. It's working quite well this year. I spoke about it the previous matches. My return position, my position generally on court, has changed.
“I tried it the last couple of years, but I never felt comfortable doing it. This year feels a bit different. Of course, I'm very pleased and very happy about that.”
Zverev, a 25-time tour-level champion whose tally also includes seven ATP Masters 1000 trophies and two Nitto ATP Finals crowns, will undoubtedly enter Friday’s semi-final showdown as a heavy favourite. However, the German is well aware of the threat posed by his opponent, who has never been a Top-100 player but is currently up 78 spots to No. 36 in the PIF ATP Live Rankings thanks to his Wimbledon run so far.
“The first time I watched him play was actually in Australia,” Zverev, who will move above Carlos Alcaraz to become World No. 2 after Wimbledon if he reaches the final, said of Fery. “He beat Cobolli in the first round. I watched that match. I was very impressed back then already. He has a very clean technique and very clean groundstrokes. I thought he was a very good tennis player already back then.
“Of course, it's maybe a surprise a little bit that he's in the semi-finals. But I think he deserves it. The wins that he had, the way he fought back in a couple of those matches, is great to see. It's a great story.”
For Fery, who is just the fifth British man to reach the Wimbledon semi-finals in the Open Era, the chance to etch his name even further into the history books of the grass major awaits. Having spent much of his childhood growing up in Wimbledon, he is well aware of how a magic fortnight in southwest London can transform a player’s fortunes. He is nonetheless determined to stay focused, even as media and fans alike discuss the possibility of him emulating Ivanisevic by becoming a wild card Wimbledon champion.
”I knew beforehand that he was the only wild card to ever win a Grand Slam,” Fery said when asked about comparisons between his run and the Croatian’s historic 2001 win. “It's obviously an incredible story. I've watched the highlights of the final before. I'm not going to speculate too much or think ahead of what that could be like. I'm just going to keep thinking ahead about my match on Friday, and then we'll see how it goes.”
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