Tim Henman hailed Arthur Fery’s ‘extraordinary’ performance as the British wildcard continued his Wimbledon fairy tale with a convincing quarter-final win over Flavio Cobolli.
Fery punched his ticket into the final four with a brilliant and clinical performance against French Open finalist Cobolli, storming to a 6-4 7-6 (4) 6-0 victory in front of a rapturous Centre Court.
The Brit, who was ranked 114th in the world before this tournament, has now become just the fourth home player in the open era to make the last four at Wimbledon after Andy Murray, Tim Henman, Roger Taylor and Cameron Norrie.
Reacting to Fery’s dominant win, Henman said on BBC commentary: ‘A quite extraordinary performance.
‘To come out in your Grand Slam quarter-final at home on Centre Court and win in straight sets and win the third set 6-0 against a Grand Slam finalist is absolutely brilliant.’
After a nip-and-tuck first set, it was Cobolli who blinked first, sending a forehand wide on set point as Fery broke to win the opening set.
Fery had won just two tour-level matches prior to this year’s grass-court season, but the 23-year-old only appeared to grow in confidence as this match went on, showing superb, scampering defence when needed but also a willingness to take the ball early and force Cobolli back.
Even after he was broken early in the second set, Fery broke back almost immediately to level at 2-2 before opening up a two-set lead with victory in a tie-break.
And from there, the Brit stormed to the finish line, showing superb ball-striking and confidence to take the final set 6-0 in just under 40 minutes.
‘What I’ve watched and been so impressed with is firstly the courage and the belief,’ Henman later added
‘When you go out on Centre Court for the first time as a British player and you’ve got the hope and expectations of a lot of people on your shoulders, you can go out there hoping and wanting it to happen, but you have to make it happen and that’s exactly what Fery has done first against Dimitrov and against Cobolli who is a world class performer.
‘The first two sets were so tight, such quality and then just to run away with things in the third set, it was absolutely sensational, and it will only enhance his inner belief that he can keep winning in this tournament.’
Fery now faces a huge semi-final against second seed Alexander Zverev after the French Open champion stormed to victory over Taylor Fritz.
‘I don’t know what I’ll do over the next couple of days, I’ve never been in this position before!’ he joked in his on-court interview after his win.
‘I guess it will be the first time and we will figure it all out as we go.
‘I’m just going to keep going, I’ve been doing a great job for the past 10 days, so I’m just going to do the same thing and see where that takes me.’
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