Tim Henman shared Arthur Fery’s frustrations after the British wildcard fumed at a controversial decision during his Wimbledon semi-final defeat to Alexander Zverev.
Fery has enjoyed a life-changing run at Wimbledon, becoming just the fifth British home player in the open era to make the last four at the All England Club.
The 24-year-old, who was ranked 114th in the world before this tournament, is now projected to be inside the world’s top 40 having taken full advantage of his wildcard.
The Brit was hoping to produce yet another upset and reach Sunday’s final, but saw his fairy tale run come to a halt as he lost in straight sets to second seed Zverev.
Fery faced a tall order up against the reigning French Open champion, and things did not go his way from the get-go as he was broken in just his second service game of the first set to fall 3-1 behind.
But the Brit was left fuming just two points later when Zverev landed a big serve out wide to move 0-30 ahead in his service game.
Fery, though, was convinced the ball had flicked the net and should have called a ‘let’, and approached chair umpire Marijana Veljovic to protest the decision.
‘The net, everyone heard that,’ Fery fumed. ‘You can hear it from the back row over there.’
Veljovic repeatedly denied hearing the ball clip the net, before Fery added: ‘I mean this one was even more obvious than the first one, even more.
And despite bouncing back to break Zverev’s serve in that game, Fery continued to vent at the umpire at the changeover as he questioned why there was no technology to help umpires with let calls.
‘It feels like it would be good to have a machine?’ Fery said. ‘I know you’re doing your best, but those ones are quite obvious.’
Let calls used to be handled by cameras and sensors, but that technology was done away with in recent years due to questions over its reliability.
But speaking on commentary during the match, former British No1 Henman insisted it was ‘mad’ that Wimbledon had not found an alternative that could be used instead of leaving umpires to make the calls.
‘It’s mad with all the technology we have, the electronic line calling. There was a let device but it didn’t work,’ said the former Wimbledon semi-finalist.
‘You’d think that someone would come up with a better piece of technology but in the Slams there hasn’t been a let call device for quite some time. It’s just the umpire that calls it – or doesn’t call it as the case may be.’
On the removal of the previous technology, Henman added: ‘It was a couple of years ago. There were a lot of times when people had to come onto the court to try and fix it.
‘It wasn’t working properly. I think this net is a little harder to call because it’s a fabric. The other nets at the other slams are plastic and make a louder noise when the ball clips the top of the net.’
Remarkably, another incident occurred in the second set, with Fery throwing his arms in the air as another suspected let call was not given.
But umpire Veljovic again stuck by her decision, asserting: ‘You think it’s a let, but actually no it’s not, because the microphone is very loud, and sometimes even the camera can be heard, so this is what you heard, I’m sure of it. This did not touch the net.’
Fery responded: ‘Then we’re hearing it so loud and it’s still a problem.’
With the call not going in his favour, Fery’s hope eventually faded as he was defeated 7-6 6-2 6-4 in just over two hours.
Zverev will take on either Novak Djokovic or Jannik Sinner in Sunday’s final, but was full of praise for Fery after his impressive run to the final four.
‘It was amazing,’ he said. ‘I have to give credit to Arthur. Unbelievable player, he’s going to be a senior citizen on our tour because I think he is going to play on this tour for 15 plus years. I think this was just the beginning of his career.
‘I really think he is going to do amazing things in this sport. I know that 99.99% of the stadium was wanting Arthur to win but it was still such an incredible atmosphere with such a fair crowd, I enjoyed every second of it.
‘A lot of stadiums in the world can learn from this crowd. It’s one of the best crowds to play tennis in front of.
‘This Grand Slam has always been the one that I have struggled with most and all of a sudden I am in the final of Wimbledon so I am incredibly happy, proud as well of the team and everyone who was involved. We have one more match to go on Sunday an that’s what the focus is on.’