Who will Arthur Fery play next at Wimbledon as British wildcard reaches quarter-finals?
Arthur Fery will play Flavio Cobolli for a place in the Wimbledon semi-finals on Wednesday after the British wildcard kept his remarkable tournament alive with a five-set victory over Grigor Dimitrov.
Fery, 23, is the first British wildcard to reach the quarter-finals at a grand slam after arriving at the Championships ranked 114th in the world and with just two grand slam victories to his name.
But he became just the sixth British man to reach the quarter-finals at Wimbledon in the open era, dramatically beating fellow wildcard Dimitrov 7-5, 3-6, 4-6, 6-4, 7-6 (10-7) in three hours and 55 minutes.
Up next for Fery, who has now won two matches in a row at Wimbledon from two sets to one down, is the Italian ninth seed and French Open runner-up Cobolli.
Cobolli, 24, earlier beat Alex de Minuar in three tough sets, winning 7-5 7-6 6-3 to continue his own battling run. Cobolli reached his first grand slam final last month, where he lost to Alexander Zverev in five sets.
In a twist, Fery and Cobolli have already played at a grand slam this season, with Fery beating Cobolli as a qualifier at the Australian Open this season when the Italian was the 20th seed.
Fery, making his overseas grand slam debut, won 7-6 (1), 6-4, 6-1 against a struggling Cobolli, who took a medical timeout and was visited by the doctor as he dealt with a stomach bug.
“It’s going to be a good match regardless,” Fery said. “I’m expecting it to be very, very difficult and different to Australia. Completely different conditions. I’m sure he’s going to be at 100 per cent of his capacities here, which maybe he wasn’t quite 100 per cent in Australia.
“I played really well in Australia. Felt like I dominated the match. So we’ll use that experience for Wednesday.”
Fery was a double-break down in the fourth set against Belgium’s Zizou Bergs, and a break down in the fifth, while he was a break down in the fourth set against Dimitrov.
“It’s been the story of the tournament for me,” he said. “I was really close to losing in the last round and again today. A break down in the fourth, just trying to keep fighting, to have a good attitude and it paid off. I played really well with my back against the wall and it paid off today.
“I couldn’t have imagined it. A week ago I would have been happy to win a few matches here, and now winning four, being in the quarters, it’s a dream.“
