Wild card Fery makes history as the Wimbledon men's semi-finals take shape
Arthur Fery became just the fourth wild card ever to reach a men's Grand Slam semi-final, and will face Alexander Zverev after the German ended his losing run to Taylor Fritz.
Arthur Fery carried his Wimbledon fairytale into the semi-finals on Wednesday, the British wild card beating ninth seed Flavio Cobolli 6-4, 7-6(4), 6-0 to become just the fourth wild card ever to reach a men's Grand Slam semi-final.
Ranked well outside the world's top 100 and handed his place in the draw by the All England Club, Fery has turned a home wild card into the run of his life. He was the sharper player throughout against Cobolli, striking 27 winners to only 15 unforced errors while the Italian sprayed 41 errors and lost the final set to love.
Standing between him and a first Grand Slam final is Alexander Zverev, who produced the cleaner performance in the other quarter-final on that side of the draw. The second seed beat Taylor Fritz 6-4, 6-4, 6-2 in around two hours to end a seven-match losing streak against the American, who was troubled by a flare-up of knee tendonitis. It capped a breakthrough fortnight for the reigning French Open champion, who had never previously passed the fourth round at Wimbledon.
Fery and Zverev have never met, and on paper it is a mismatch, the wild card against a major champion. But little about Fery's fortnight has followed the script.
The other semi-final pits seven-time champion Novak Djokovic against defending champion and world No. 1 Jannik Sinner. Both last-four ties are scheduled for Friday.
