How does a British wildcard respond after lighting up Wimbledon with a stunning run to the semi-finals? In Arthur Fery’s case, by carrying that momentum straight into another breakthrough and reaching the final of his very next tournament.
It is now exactly 50 days since the 24-year-old Briton walked onto Centre Court for the final act of his remarkable Championships campaign, where his surge ended in a last-four defeat to French Open champion Alexander Zverev.
That Wimbledon performance transformed Fery’s standing almost overnight, lifting him from 114th in the rankings to world No 36 and making him British No 1, while also earning him a sizeable £900,000 prize-money boost. Now the 5ft 9in, French-born player has added another landmark, contesting his first ATP tour-level final on the eve of his maiden US Open appearance.
Fery is looking ahead to the US Open after reaching the final at Winston-Salem
His stop in Ohio proved more of a false start, with a second-round meeting against world No 5 Alex de Minaur cutting short his Cincinnati campaign. But instead of heading straight to New York to focus solely on preparations for the season’s final Grand Slam, Fery found his rhythm at the Winston-Salem Open and played himself into impressive form.
A 250-ranked event, the lowest on the elite tour, Winston-Salem is held on the campus of Wake Forest University in North Carolina. A blink-and-you’ll-miss-it destination, but with the power to attract big names like Daniil Medvedev and Stefanos Tsitsipas looking for a late tune-up before the Big Apple.
And Fery’s decision to get live points in his legs after a summer away from competitive action paid off, with the Stanford University graduate booking his final against No 2 seed Ignacio Buse. Although unable to bypass the rising Peruvian star, who beat him 6-3, 6-2, the run takes Fery to 33rd in the live rankings.
There are few who have been in Fery’s shoes and experienced the feeling of being catapulted into the top 40 in the world, but French player Lois Boisson is among them. Last year, when handed a wildcard into Roland-Garros, Boisson made to the semi-finals in front of a gobsmacked home crowd, having defeated key scalps including 2026 winner Mirra Andreeva and US No 1 Jessica Pegula en route. A month earlier, she had lost the first round of a lowly WTA 125k event in St Malo.
‘What it changes is the schedule,’ Boisson told Daily Mail Sport when asked about the realities of a sharp jump up the rankings. ‘It’s totally not what was scheduled at first (after that win).
Lois Boisson knows all about the challenge of being catapulted to the world’s top 40
‘I wasn’t on the tour before, I was doing ITF events and Challengers. So then it changed a lot and I was questioning, “what do you play? What kind of tournament?” You have to adapt to this new area. Being with new people, only the top players, the top tournaments.’
Rather than beg for a wildcard to enter the small draw, now Fery could enter Winston-Salem as the fourth seed and he scythed through his opponents accordingly.
After teaching a lesson to Lleyton Hewitt’s 17-year-old son Cruz in straight sets, Fery swept aside Mees Rottgering. A testing three-set clash with home favourite Aleksandar Kovacevic brought to mind the dogged, never-say-die attitude of his Wimbledon run as Fery battled back from a set down to edge the second, and blow away the US opponent in the third.
Regardless of the outcome of his match-up with Buse, Fery will be coming into the US Open hot. So what can we expect from him Stateside?
The American hard courts hold no mystery for Fery, who burnished his game on the college circuit. But after flourishing on Wimbledon’s grass, which rewards his all-court bag-of-tricks game, Fery may have a tougher time against booming baseliners who thrive at Flushing Meadows, in part due to his comparatively smaller stature.
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On a hard court, a power hitter’s groundstrokes offer up a consistently higher bounce and faster ball than unpredictable grass. Those who can’t absorb and respond to that power face being bulldozed.
5ft7’ Ken Rosewall may have won US Open twice, and height isn’t what first comes to mind with the mention of 5ft11’ Andre Agassi, but Fery is surrounded by peers over 6ft and counting, and has himself spoken of the importance of adapting his game on all surfaces in light of his own attributes.
Fery’s memorable run to the semi-finals at Wimbledon included a fine fourth-round win over Grigor Dimitrov
Fery himself has spoken of the importance of adapting his game in light of his own attributes. In the eyes of LTA performance director Michael Bourne however, attempting to rule him out of this part of the season because of his height has little value.
‘I don’t think there’s much benefit in putting caps on players,’ Bourne said this week. ‘Height in itself isn’t necessarily a limiting factor in the game. It’s what height might limit for you, so your ability to generate power, your ability to get around the court, your wingspan, etc. But there can also be counters to those.
‘So you might be small in stature and height, but can you still generate good serve speed? If you saw the serve speeds that Arthur was generating at the Championships, they were relevant at all levels.
‘If you look at Arthur’s speed around the court, OK, somebody else might have a much larger stride to get around the court, but his speed of decision-making, his sprint speed can make up for some of that as well.
‘He’s a very talented boy. He’s got great ball speed, he’s an amazing decision-maker on the court. He’s a good athlete. I think at this point he’s earned the right for us to not be putting ceilings on him, and let’s just see how far he can go, and be excited about it.’
Fery faces a tricky first-round tie against No13 seed Lorenzo Musetti – but the Italian has had an uneven season so far
There is plenty to excite about Fery. Reaching the Winston-Salem final has wrestled the British top spot back into his clutches after briefly losing it to Cameron Norrie earlier this month, and with no points to defend after failing to make the qualifying cut for last year’s US Open, any gains in New York – and the rest of the season – will only boost his ranking.
Fery’s first-round opponent, Lorenzo Musetti, is an interesting prospect too. While being drawn against the No13 seed is rarely reason to celebrate, the Italian has had an uneven season hampered by injury which forced him to skip the French Open and Wimbledon. An in-form Fery will relish the opportunity to claim a big scalp early on after just missing out on seeding.
But the ultimate advantage for Fery will remain that Wimbledon run. Injury sidelined Boisson for seven months last season and has seen her topple from the top 40 to 236 in the world. She enters this year’s US Open on her protected ranking in a bid to rise again.
‘I know what I did last year,’ she adds. ‘I know what I’m capable of. I know it just takes time, (but) the experience is something that you cannot change. I have it with me.’
For Fery, those two weeks in Wimbledon can now be harnessed to see him climb even higher.