Under the gaze of his country’s Queen, the dancing feet of the irrepressible and seemingly unstoppable Arthur Fery carried him within two matches of his own coronation.
The 23-year-old – who stands at 5ft 9in and plays with the heart of a giant – beat No9 seed Flavio Cobolli in straight sets to become the first wildcard to reach the Wimbledon men’s semi-finals since Goran Ivanisevic 25 years ago.
Two more wins and he will celebrate his 24th birthday on Sunday with the Wimbledon title. First, he must beat French Open champion and No2 seed Alexander Zverev on Friday. Then: Jannik Sinner or Novak Djokovic in the final. Fair to say it does not get any easier from here.
‘That last game I felt emotions I have never felt before in my life,’ he said on court. ‘I’m just going to keep going. I’ve been doing a great job over the last 10 days so just keep going and see where it’s going to take me.’
Fery’s run to this stage had been hugely impressive but there were caveats. He had not played anyone inside the world’s top 35; his third-round opponent Zizou Bergs choked spectacularly; in the fourth he met Grigor Dimitrov, a fabulous player but one who had won only six matches in 2026 before this year.
No caveats this time: Fery faced the No9 seed, a French Open finalist last month, and made him look ordinary. What a performance and what an occasion awaits in Friday’s semi-finals.
Arthur Fery falls to the floor as he celebrates winning match point to see off Flavio Cobolli
He raised a fist to the crowd to salute his victory as the British wildcard reached the semi-finals
With respect to Cam Norrie, who made the last four here in 2022, we have not seen grass-court tennis like this from a British player since the heyday of Andy Murray.
In the relentlessness of his double-handed backhand, the aggression of his return, the subtlety of his hand skills and the sophistication of his tactics, Fery looked like the great Scot with a few inches sawn off and a handful of Xanax in his system.
For while Murray played with sound and fury, Fery operates with utter tranquility as the storm of excitement rages around him.
Just seconds before he and Cobolli were about to walk out on court, Queen Camilla appeared to wish them luck. What a symbol of the scale of the occasion; what a dose of added nerves.
And yet Fery reacted as if an old friend had popped by unannounced. ‘You snuck up on me there,’ he said, then shouldered his bag, strode on to Centre Court and played the match of his life.
There has been a growing school of thought that grass is losing its uniqueness as a surface – that players can just show up and blaze away as they do on hard or clay. Fery has been a wonderful antidote to that notion and he made Cobolli – a player who took Novak Djokovic to four tough sets in the quarters here last year – look as if he had never played a match on grass in his life.
Fery’s slices off both forehand and backhand, his drop shots and his delicately crafted volleys left Cobolli utterly discombobulated. It was as if the Italian with his modern, muscled topspin forehand had been dragged back into the era when men played here in starched shirts and flannels.
For all Fery’s hand skills, what has really set him apart this fortnight is his feet. He moves so beautifully on a grass court, shimmering over its surface like a bird skimming over water.
Fery has now won five matches this fortnight, having won just one match at Wimbledon previously
As he always has, Fery made a tranquil start and the first nine games passed without threat of a break. Then the Centre Court crowd appeared to come to his aid in a peculiar manner.
At 4-5 in the first set, Cobolli threw up the ball to serve and had to bail out of his action as the pop of a champagne cork split the polite silence. Umpire Arnaud Gabas intervened, telling the crowd: ‘Ladies and gentlemen, please enjoy your drinks but wait until the end of the point before opening a bottle’ – a ticking off that was the Wimbledon equivalent of firing tear gas at hooligans.
All very silly but it seemed to affect Cobolli’s rhythm, for in the three points that followed he coughed up two unforced errors, a double fault and thus the opening set.
They traded breaks early in the second set and we found ourselves in a tiebreak. Fery took it 7-4 and he has now won all five of the tiebreaks he has played here this fortnight – he is at his very best in the biggest moments.
If one looked at these players’ rankings – No10 in the world vs No114 – the scoreline was absurd. If you looked at the respective quality of their tennis it made perfect sense.
One of the advantages of being a bolter at a Gr is the field does not have much of an idea how to play against you. Cobolli looked like he did not know whether he was trying to blast Fery off court or grind him down.
Still, surely we would see a response from the Grand Slam finalist in the third set? Instead, we saw a capitulation. Fery, playing with utter freedom, demolished him.
To pick out one from the many beautiful points he crafted, lets take the one to take a 5-0 lead. After a baseline exchange Cobolli came into the net and chopped a forehand volley diagonally across the net. Fery was way out on the other side of the court, he was nowhere near it, but he sped across the grass and slid it down the line. Cobolli lobbed – not a bad idea against a small man – but Fery did enough with the smash.
Queen Camilla applauded in the Royal Box after Fery sealed victory to continue his fairytale
As he served out, Cobolli smashed a ball at him and it clipped the net tape, reversing in the other direction. Fery readjusted danced to his left and hit the winner. An ace sealed the hold to love.
You could go to the National Ballet and not see footwork like this. What a performance.
