Arthur Fery becomes new British No. 1 in huge rankings boost despite dream Wimbledon run ending

Arthur Fery may have lost on the court, but he’s won hearts across the nation.

The 23-year-old’s dream run at Wimbledon came to a shuddering halt at the semi-final stage as he was brushed aside 7-6 (7-0), 6-2, 6-4 by No. 2 seed Alexander Zverev.

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Despite the straight sets defeat, Fery walked off Centre Court to a standing ovation.

And rightly so, given Fery entered the main draw of the gentlemen’s singles as a wildcard and sitting a lowly 114th in the world.

Fery tale Wimbledon run

Fery had also never gone beyond the second round at any of his previous Grand Slam appearances.

But now, Fery walks away from the All England Club with a cool £900,000 in prize money as well as a shiny new ranking of 36th in the world, making him Britain’s new No. 1 male.

As for Zverev, he is now into a Wimbledon final for the first time in his career and awaits either Novak Djokovic or defending champion Jannik Sinner.

Zverev goes into Sunday’s contest with the hopes of winning back-to-back grand slam titles having triumphed at the French Open, ending his agonising wait for a first major.

The first set was a tense affair, heightened by Fery contesting the umpire over the technology used for let calls.

Fery’s frustrations only served to fire him up as the pair traded blows until they reached a tiebreak.

Zverev goes through the gears

From there, it was one-way traffic in Zverev’s favour as he won every single point in the tiebreak to claim the first set.

Sadly, that was as good as it got for Fery as Zverev showed all the class and poise expected from the world No. 3.

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After a first set that lasted nearly an hour, Zverev needed just 38 minutes to take a two-set lead.

The power generated from his towering 198cm frame was reflected by Zverev clubbing 12 winners in the second set to Fery’s three.

Zverev was also quick to punish any loose play on Fery’s serve, as the Briton won 33 per cent of his 2nd serve points.

Compared to Zverev winning 86 per cent of his second serves, the gulf in quality was evident.

Although Fery did his best to mount a fightback, like he had successfully done in his previous matches, he could not dig from the well one last time.

Zverev wrapped up proceedings with a powerful serve out wide to Fery’s forehand and although the Brit managed a successful return, he floated a shot beyond the baseline.