Who is Arthur Fery, first wildcard in 25 years to reach Wimbledon semis

Arthur Fery, the 23 year-old French-born British player who has never gone beyond the second round at a Grand Slam, continues his ‘ferytale’ story at the 2026 Wimbledon when he reached the semifinals after beating French Open finalist Flavio Cobolli in straight sets with the scores 6-4 7-6 (7-4) 6-0 on Wednesday, July 8.

Fery became the first wildcard since the legendary Croatian Goran Ivanisevic to reach the men’s singles semifinals at Wimbledon, who stunned the tennis world by winning the title back in 2001. The only other men’s wildcards to ​reach Grand Slam semifinals are Jimmy Connors at the 1991 US Open and Henri Leconte at the 1992 French Open.

Fery is just the fifth British player after Roger Taylor, Tim Henman, Andy Murray and Cameron Norrie to reach the Wimbledon semifinals in the Open Era and, according to ATP, he will become the new British number 1 next week. He is currently up 78 spots to No. 36 in the ATP Rankings and would rise to No. 26 if he goes on to upset the reigning Roland Garros champion Alexander Zverev in the semis.

How Fery and Tennis got along

Arthur Fery had tennis in his genes thanks to his mother Olivia, who herself was a professional player and reached a career-high singles ranking of No. 225 on the WTA Tour. She also competed in the women’s doubles draw at the 1991 French Open. As his mother became an honorary member at the All England Club, it allowed Fery to play tennis along her as a child. His father, Loic Fery, is the current President at FC Lorient, who compete in the French Ligue 1.

Born in Sevres, France, Fery moved to London as an infant along with his parents in 2002. After completing his schooling at the King’s College School in Wimbledon, Fery moved to the U.S. to study and played collegiate tennis at Stanford University.

“It’s been a long time that I’ve lived in the UK. I’ve spent a lot of time here. I train at the National Tennis Centre. The federation helped me lots. I feel completely British now. Maybe 10 years ago you ask me the question, it would be a bit different. Now I feel very British at heart,” said Fery in an interview during the week one of Wimbledon.

Career Overview

Fery started playing Tennis at the age of 5, training under coach Alison Taylor at Westside Tennis Club till he was 12. According to LTA records, he won five singles and five doubles in the junior circuit and had a junior ranking as high as 12th. He also reached the third round of singles at the Australian Open, Roland Garros and Wimbledon junior events, but his standout results came in the doubles. Fery was a boys’ doubles semi-finalist in Melbourne and at Wimbledon, and also made a quarter-final at the French Open.

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After his junior career, he decided to continue his tennis development through the US college system. He finished his college career as a two-time ITA All-American, a Pac-12 (Pacific Coast Conference) champion and Pac-12 singles player of the year.

In 2021 and 2022, Fery played the main draw Wimbledon doubles. In 2023, while now going full-time, he got his first ATP Challenger victory Tour victory at the Nottingham Open on grass, up against Steve Johnson.

After his impressive performances over the summer, he received his first main draw Wimbledon wildcard but suffered a defeat to third seed Russian international Daniil Medvedev in the first round.

He won his first ATP Challenger doubles title alongside fellow Brit Joshua Paris in Nonthaburi in 2024, where he also made the semi-finals of the singles recording the best result of the season.

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In 2025 he got his big breakthrough as won his first main draw match at Wimbledon, knocking out 20th seed Alexei Popyrin. He finished the season just inside the world’s top-200, which earned him a spot in Australian Open qualifying. He got his first victory over Flavio Cobolli earlier this year there in the first round.

Fery further qualified for the Miami Open and reached the semi-final of the Zagreb Challenger before the start of the grass court season.

Fery after yesterday’s win against Cobolli:

“I’m just going to keep going, I’ve been doing a great job for the past 10 days, so just going to keep going and see where it takes me,” said an emotional Fery on Centre Court on Wedneseday. Fery’s semifinal match against Alexander Zverev is on July 10, Friday and he would be hoping to continue his ‘ferytale’.

Written by Madhav Sachdeva, an intern with the online sports desk.