Arthur Fery, ranked World No. 114 nine days ago, plays Alexander Zverev on Centre Court this afternoon for a place in Sunday's Wimbledon men's singles final. He is the first British wildcard to reach a Slam quarterfinal in the Open Era and only the second wildcard of any nationality to reach a Wimbledon semifinal since Goran Ivanisevic in 2001. He is 23 years old. He grew up in Wimbledon village. He took the school bus past the All England Club for eleven years. He beat Flavio Cobolli 6-4, 7-6(4), 6-0 on Wednesday to get here.
Novak Djokovic won the longest quarterfinal in Wimbledon history on Tuesday, beating Felix Auger-Aliassime 7-6, 3-6, 6-3, 6-7, 7-6 in exactly five hours. He plays Jannik Sinner on Centre later this afternoon in a rematch of the 2025 final. Zverev, snapping a seven-match losing streak against Taylor Fritz, cruised through the American QF 6-4, 6-4, 6-2 in his cleanest hardcourt-shaped grass match. Sinner is through without dropping a set. Four semifinalists remain. One is a wildcard.
The women's final is set. Karolina Muchova beat Coco Gauff 6-2, 1-6, 7-6(12) in a super tiebreak Thursday. Linda Noskova beat Marta Kostyuk 6-4, 6-4 in the other. Muchova vs Noskova on Saturday is the first all-Czech Wimbledon women's final in the Open Era and the first same-country women's final at any Slam since the Williams sisters at Wimbledon 2009.
Wimbledon — Men's Singles Quarterfinals
Round | Match | Score |
|---|---|---|
QF | Sinner [1] d. Struff | 7-5, 7-6(4), 6-3 |
QF | Djokovic [7] d. Auger-Aliassime [3] | 7-6, 3-6, 6-3, 6-7, 7-6 |
QF | Zverev [2] d. Fritz [6] | 6-4, 6-4, 6-2 |
QF | Fery (WC) d. Cobolli [9] | 6-4, 7-6(4), 6-0 |
Wimbledon — Ladies' Singles (QFs + SFs)
Round | Match | Score |
|---|---|---|
SF | Muchova [10] d. Gauff [7] | 6-2, 1-6, 7-6(12) |
SF | Noskova [9] d. Kostyuk [12] | 6-4, 6-4 |
QF | Gauff [7] d. Pegula [4] | 4-6, 6-3, 6-3 |
QF | Muchova [10] d. Osaka [14] | 7-6(4), 6-4 |
Sinner is one match from a fifth Slam final in seven appearances, still without a set dropped.
Zverev is into his first Wimbledon SF at 29. His serve was 88% first-in against Fritz.
Fery is only the second wildcard to reach a Wimbledon SF since Goran Ivanisevic in 2001.
All four women's semifinalists were first-time Slam SF entrants at this event.
The women's final is the first all-Czech Slam final in the Open Era.
Osaka's run ends her best Slam result on grass; the hardcourt swing begins in three weeks.
Fery's odds against Zverev today opened at 22-1.
🎯 PICK 1 · JANNIK SINNER · To win Wimbledon
Zero sets dropped through the QF; the Djokovic SF is the toughest possible pre-final test. The trophy is the trophy.
🎯 PICK 2 · KAROLINA MUCHOVA · To win the women's title
The Bad Homburg champion, the cleanest ball-striker of the fortnight, and the more experienced Slam finalist of the two Czechs. The super-tiebreak survival tells you the level in the room.
🎯 PICK 3 · ALEXANDER ZVEREV · To reach the final
The RG champion at his cleanest grass form in seven years against a wildcard.
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Arthur Fery was born on 12 July 2002 in Sèvres, a western suburb of Paris. Two Sundays from today is his twenty-fourth birthday. Two Sundays from today is also the Wimbledon men's singles final. His parents flew from Paris to London when he was one month old and settled into a house in Wimbledon village, ten minutes on foot from Gate 3. His father, Loïc, is a French businessman and the president of the Ligue 1 club Lorient. His mother, Olivia Gravereaux, played the women's doubles main draw at Roland Garros 1991 and later represented Hong Kong in the Fed Cup. He attended King's College School in Wimbledon from age eleven, took the school bus past the All England Club's Gate 4 every weekday from 2013 through 2020, and joined the junior queue for the People's Sunday of 2016 with a group of school friends who camped overnight in Wimbledon Park.
He is French-born, British-raised, dual-passported, and, from age twelve onwards, has represented Great Britain. The junior years produced a career-high junior world ranking of No. 12 and semifinal appearances in the Wimbledon Boys' doubles in 2019 and the Australian Open Boys' doubles in 2020. He was, by 2020, projected as a top-40 senior prospect. He then made an unusual choice for a British junior with his level of profile. He turned down the LTA's professional-development contract and enrolled at Stanford University on a tennis scholarship.
Stanford's men's tennis program has produced two American Slam finalists in the last thirty years (Bob and Mike Bryan in doubles) and no Slam singles champion since John McEnroe played there in 1978. Fery arrived in 2020 as a first-year undergraduate in the Science, Technology and Society program and, by his sophomore year, became Stanford's first men's No. 1 ranked singles player since Bob Bryan a quarter-century earlier. Two-time Pac-12 Player of the Year. Two-time All-American. 58 wins and 16 losses across three years of collegiate competition. He graduated in 2024 with a bachelor's degree, played the Challenger tour for eighteen months, and arrived at Wimbledon 2026 with a career-high ranking of No. 114 and a wildcard granted the same week the LTA gave one to Jack Draper. The bracket was drawn on 27 June. Fery, four seeds below the top thirty-two, was placed in Cobolli's eighth of the draw.
His run has been the tournament's cleanest storyline. R1 was Grigor Dimitrov, the 15th seed, who Fery beat 4-6, 6-4, 7-6(4), 6-4 after saving two match points in the third-set tiebreak. R2 was a Danish qualifier in straights. R3 was Nishesh Basavareddy in four sets. R4 was Roberto Bautista Agut, the veteran Spaniard, in five sets and four hours twenty minutes on Court 1, where Fery served the match out on his first opportunity after breaking to love at 4-5. The QF against Cobolli, the 2026 Roland Garros finalist and the No. 9 seed, was 6-4, 7-6(4), 6-0. Fery won 65% of his second-serve points across the match. The final set went 24 minutes.
His semifinal today is on Centre Court, at 2.30, against Alexander Zverev. Fery has never played a top-five player at a tour event. The bookmakers open him at 22-1 to win the trophy Sunday and at approximately 9-1 to beat Zverev today. The realistic outcome is a loss, in four, on a serve that Zverev's return will punish and on rally patterns that grass-court experience does not compensate for.
What is not the realistic outcome, and what is the whole reason the story is worth writing, is the run itself. Wildcards do not make the Wimbledon semifinal. Ivanisevic did it in 2001, and Ivanisevic was a three-time Wimbledon finalist and career top-two-in-the-world player who happened to be ranked 125 that week. The next-most-recent Slam SF wildcard was Karolina Muchova at the 2019 Australian Open. Fery, at 114, coming from a Stanford undergraduate program, at his home Slam, is now the story that the tournament has produced this fortnight. The men's draw held. The women's draw did not. The narrative story went to a 23-year-old British player nobody outside British tennis had heard of ten days ago.
Whatever happens today, Fery is now the second British man to reach a Wimbledon semifinal in the last ten years, after Andy Murray in 2017. His new ranking on Monday, whether he wins or loses today, will be inside the top 45. Two Sundays from today he will be 24 years old. Two Sundays from today he will be, whatever else happens, the story of the Wimbledon 2026 fortnight for anyone who wants to remember what wildcards used to mean.
Djokovic Vs Auger-Aliassime Highlights, Wimbledon 2026
The five-hour epic; longest Wimbledon QF in history.
Wimbledon 2026: Arthur Fery stuns Flavio Cobolli
The straight-set QF from the British wildcard; final set in 24 minutes.
Muchova outlasts Osaka to complete Grand Slam semifinal set at Wimbledon
The Czech's QF over Osaka in straight sets; sets up Gauff SF.
Wimbledon 2026: Coco Gauff eyes final, set to meet Karolína Muchová in semis
The full women's SF preview package with match previews for both.
Wimbledon · Through Sunday July 12 · Grand Slam · Outdoor grass · All England Club, London
Men's SFs today: Sinner vs Djokovic and Zverev vs Fery. Women's final Saturday July 11: Muchova vs Noskova. Men's final Sunday July 12.
On the horizon:
Newport Hall of Fame Open (ATP 250) · July 13 – 19 · Grass · Rhode Island. The season's only post-Wimbledon grass event.
Bastad, Gstaad, Bucharest (ATP 250s) · Clay swing returns for a two-week window.
Palermo, Prague, Iasi (WTA 250s) · Clay + hard mix.
The North American hard-court swing begins in late July with Washington DC and Toronto, leading into Cincinnati (M1000 + W1000, August 10-17), and the US Open series buildup.