Queen Camilla gave Arthur Fery a nice surprise ahead of his Wimbledon quarter-final against Flavio Cobolli. Both players were waiting to make their way onto Centre Court when Queen Camilla suddenly sneaked up behind Fery.
She then shook the 23-year-old’s hand, appeared to wish him well, before shaking the hand of Cobolli, who looked equally shocked at what was going on. And as the BBC broadcast the live footage, presenter Clare Balding couldn’t quite believe what she was seeing. The host said: “It’s the Queen, right behind them. I love this!
“And she’s going to go and say hello to Arthur before he steps out on court! That is, as Tim (Henman) says, Arthur Fery has been able to manage everything so far as if he’s been doing it his whole life. He’s a very, very cool customer.”
Queen Camilla made a surprise visit to the All England Club on Wednesday morning with her sister Annabel Elliott. She met a line up of Wimbledon staff, players, and local workers, including former British number one Heather Watson.
When asked what they discussed by the Press Association, Watson said: “She’s super down-to-earth. I started sweating profusely with nerves. She asked me about Wimbledon and my career.”
Watson added: “She was lovely. I met the previous Queen, I think it was over 10 years ago now, in exactly the same sort of place with Laura (Robson).”
The Queen also spoke with Richard Gammage, who is chief executive of City Harvest, a charity combating food waste. And Mr Gammage said: “It was lovely to meet Her Majesty.”
Before he continued: “We talked about what we do and how we do it, she was really interested in all of that. I had the great privilege of meeting her about 15 years ago when she was becoming involved with the Royal Air Force Station, and she remembered that, which was lovely.”
While Fery is back on Wimbledon’s main stage with the winner of his match against Cobolli, taking on either Taylor Fritz, Alexander Zverev or Jiri Lehecka in the last four.
The British wild card made it back-to-back five-set wins by again coming from behind to defeat former world number three Grigor Dimitrov in one of the most impressive Centre Court debuts on Monday.
The 23-year-old entered the tournament ranked 114, with only two grand slam victories to his name and never having won a five-set match.
However, he has already beaten Damir Dzumhur, Otto Virtanen, Zizou Bergs and Dimitrov this year – and Fery ultimately went on to take the first set against Cobolli too.