Arthur Fery characterized his advancement to the semi-finals at Wimbledon as a result of his strong self-confidence, following his victory over ninth seed Flavio Cobolli with scores of 6-4, 7-6 (4), 6-0 on Wednesday.
“For the past ten days, my focus has been on believing in myself, giving my all in each match, and seeing where that leads me,” Fery stated. “I had previously defeated him in Australia, so I knew I could do it, and today I proved that.”
Entering Wimbledon ranked 114th, Fery required a wildcard to gain entry into the main draw and had never advanced past the second round in any grand slam event prior to this. He is set to compete against Alexander Zverev, the second seed and recent champion of the French Open, who triumphed over sixth seed Taylor Fritz with scores of 6-4, 6-4, 6-2.
“I have always had faith in my abilities and believed I could become a top player,” Fery remarked. “Reaching the semi-finals at Wimbledon is a whole different level. I’ve taken it one match at a time without looking too far ahead. Here I am now.”
Queen Camilla was present in the Centre Court audience, where she greeted Fery just before his match and congratulated him afterwards.
“She waited for me at the conclusion of the match to offer her congratulations. I expressed to her how honored I felt to play in her presence. She replied, ‘Congratulations, keep going.’ I mentioned that my birthday is on Sunday, and it would be wonderful to play in the Wimbledon final on that day.”
At 23 years old, Fery is the fourth wildcard player in the open era to reach the semi-finals of a grand slam men’s singles competition, and the second to achieve this at Wimbledon, following Goran Ivanisevic, who won the title in 2001.
“I’ve never met him,” Fery commented. “I was aware that he is the only wildcard player to have won a grand slam title, and that’s an amazing story. I’ve seen highlights of his final.”
“I’m not going to speculate on what that might feel like,” he added. “I’ll keep my focus on the match coming up on Friday and take it from there.”
