Before this year’s Wimbledon, Arthur Fery was a minor name in the world of tennis. The 23-year-old had only made his ATP Tour debut last year and arrived at SW19 ranked a modest No. 114 in the world.
Along the way, he has claimed the scalps of three-time Grand Slam semi-finalist Grigior Dimitrov and No.9 seed Flavio Cobolli, dispatching the Italian in straight sets in the quarter-finals. Fery’s remarkable run has catapulted him from relative obscurity to Britain’s newest sporting hero, with the weight of a nation’s hopes and expectations now resting firmly on his shoulders.
One player who knows exactly what that feels like is Emma Raducanu, who became a global superstar overnight with her fairytale US Open triumph as a qualifier in 2021. Raducanu was ranked No. 150 in the world and aged just 18 years old when she stunned the tennis world by winning 10 consecutive matches without dropping a set to lift the trophy in New York.
The current British No. 1, who missed this year’s Wimbledon with injury, has previously revealed how she managed to block out the noise and keep her focus on the court throughout that unforgettable run. Fery would be wise to heed her words as he bids to complete his own remarkable journey to a maiden Grand Slam title.
“The biggest thing is that I never once got ahead of myself,” Raducanu told the WTA website. “For three weeks I just played the opponent in front if me. I took care of what I wanted to try and achieve on that day against that opponent and just repeated it for three weeks.
“I played some really great tennis against some extremely tough opponents and faced a lot of adversity despite the fact that I didn’t drop a set. Those sets could have gone either way, a lot of them, because they were very tight games and the margins are so small.”
Fery will battle it out on Centre Court against French Open champion Alexander Zverev on Friday afternoon as he looks to continue his astounding Championships.