Arthur Fery dropped to his knees on Centre Court, the crowd chanting his name, after dismantling world No 10 Flavio Cobolli 6-4 7-6(4) 6-0 to become the first men's wildcard to reach the Wimbledon semi-finals in 25 years. Only Goran Ivanisevic – who went on to win the title – had previously achieved that feat.
The 23-year-old, ranked No 114 before this tournament and outside the top 500 just 18 months ago after a bone stress injury, needed just two hours and 14 minutes to dispatch the ninth seed in front of nearly 15,000 partisan spectators. But his path to history began with an unexpected encounter: Queen Camilla had met Fery and Cobolli in the tunnel before they walked onto court.
“Arthur Fery beats Flavio Cobolli to reach Wimbledon semi-finals, tells Queen Camilla he wants to play final on his birthday.”
"She introduced herself to both me and Flavio," Fery recalled. "It's obviously an honour to play in front of her." After the match, she waited for him. "She congratulated me," he said. "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's birthday falls on the day of the men's final. To reach it, he must now beat French Open champion Alexander Zverev, the No 2 seed, in Friday's semi-final. His composure throughout the quarter-final belied his lack of experience: leading by a set and 6-4 in the second set tie-break, he leapt forward to meet Cobolli's second serve on the rise, then swept forward to the net for a delicate backhand drop volley that killed the set.
"I felt emotions that I've never experienced before in my life in that last game," Fery said. "It gets better and better every match. I just can't believe it."
He becomes only the fifth British man in the Open era to reach the Wimbledon men's singles semi-finals, joining Andy Murray, Tim Henman, Roger Taylor and Cam Norrie. On Monday, he will be the new British No 1, guaranteed to rise to at least 36th in the world rankings.
"What I'll do over the next couple of days, I've never been in this position before," he admitted. "I'm just going to keep going."