Arthur Fery described his incredible run to the semi-finals of Wimbledon as a product of his immense self-belief, after he defeated the ninth seed, Flavio Cobolli, 6-4, 7-6 (4), 6-0 on Wednesday.
“That’s just what I’ve tried to do for the past 10 days. Just believe in myself, do the best I can do every match, give myself 100%, and see then where that will take me,” Fery said. “Today especially, because I’ve beaten him in Australia, so I knew I could do it, and yeah, I did.”
Fery had arrived at Wimbledon ranked No 114 and required a wildcard to enter the main draw. He had never previously passed the second round of a grand slam tournament. He will face Alexander Zverev, the second seed and recent French Open champion, for a place in the final after the German defeated the sixth seed, Taylor Fritz, 6-4, 6-4, 6-2.
“I’ve always believed in myself and believed that I could be a top player in the world,” Fery said. “Obviously a semi-finalist of Wimbledon is something else. I’ve taken it match by match. I haven’t looked ahead. I’ve just played every match as it is. Here I am.”
Watching among the Centre Court crowd was Queen Camilla, who greeted Fery moments before he was due on the court and then congratulated him afterwards. “She was waiting for me at the end of the match,” Fery said. “She congratulated me. I told her how much of an honour it was for me to play in front of her. She just said: ‘Congratulations, keep going.’ I told her it was my birthday on Sunday, so it would be great to play the Wimbledon final on my birthday.”
Fery is just the fourth wildcard in the open era to reach the semi-finals of the men’s singles competition at a grand slam tournament and the second to do so at Wimbledon, after Goran Ivanisevic. Back in 2001, Ivanisevic finished the tournament as the champion.
“Never met him,” Fery said. “I knew beforehand that he was the only wildcard to win a grand slam ‘I’ve always believed’: Fery in dreamland after crushing Cobolli to reach last four | Wimbledon 2026. So it’s obviously an incredible story. I’ve watched the highlights of the final before.
after newsletter promotion
“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.”
