British tennis star Arthur Fery\u2019s fairytale run at Wimbledon has been topped off with a meeting with the royals.<\/p>\n
The 24-year-old went into the competition as a relatively unknown player but has left something of a national hero after making it to the semi-finals.<\/p>\n
Meeting with the Princess of Wales on Sunday, Fery invited Prince George and Princess Charlotte to have a hit of tennis with him sometime. <\/p>\n
\u201cI know the whole family are all tennis fans, so I told her [Kate] if her kids ever wanted to hit, I\u2019m free,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
While he\u2019s not sure if he\u2019ll actually get the call up from the royals, Fery said Kate \u201cwished me good luck for the rest of the year and congratulated me for these two weeks.\u201d <\/p>\n
He was also presented with a card from Princess Kate and Prince William for his 24th birthday, which was on Sunday.<\/p>\n
Fery, who had previously been ranked 114th in the world, was the first wildcard to make the men\u2019s semi-finals at Wimbledon in 25 years.<\/p>\n
However he lost to second seed Alexander Zverev 7-6 (7\/0), 6-2, 6-4 on Friday, crushing his dream of becoming the first British man to win Wimbledon since Andy Murray.<\/p>\n
Nevertheless he said after the match: \u201cI\u2019m proud of how I handled the progression of the tournament and how I kept going in every match.<\/p>\n
\u201cJust kept fighting, came back to the court every time and gave my best, never letting go and really pushing myself to the limit.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt might have been just a step too far today. The opponent was a step up again.\u201d<\/p>\n
Fery had won just two matches at Grand Slams prior to his astonishing surge into the last four, and he will now rise to 36th in the ATP rankings.<\/p>\n
That will guarantee him entry into the sport\u2019s biggest events, instead of having to rely on wildcards or qualifiers to make the main draw.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s going to change things, for sure. I\u2019m going to be able to play tour events at least for a full year, hopefully for more,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s going to be interesting to see how I deal with that change and everything that that brings in terms of expectations from myself, from the public, from everyone.<\/p>\n
\u201cAlready looking forward to that. It\u2019s going to be a challenge to deal with all of that, but I\u2019m conscious of it already and that\u2019s the first step.\u201d<\/p>\n
– With AFP<\/p>\n