Unseeded British star Arthur Fery made light work of the fancied Flavio Cobolli to qualify for the 2026 Wimbledon semi-finals, after a straight sets win on centre court.
It is 25 years since Goran Ivanisevic famously became the first wild card to win the men’s singles title, and Fery is now only two wins away from matching that historic achievement.
The 23-year-old, who had never progressed past the second round prior to this year, made light work of the number nine seeded Italian in front of a rapturous home crowd on Wednesday afternoon, winning 6-4 7-6 (4) 6-0 in the end.
He is just the fifth home man in the open era to make the last four at SW19 and by some distance the most improbable, joining Andy Murray, Tim Henman, Roger Taylor and, most recently, Cameron Norrie – who he will overtake next week to become British number one.
He will take on Alexander Zverev next after the French Open champion halted a seven-match losing streak against Taylor Fritz in emphatic fashion to storm into a maiden Wimbledon semi-final with a statement straight-sets victory.
Fritz had dominated this match-up since he fought back from two sets down to win at the All England Club in 2024 and even triumphed against the world number three on the grass in Halle last month, but that was only weeks after a triumphant run in Paris for his German rival.
With the tag of being the best player to never win a grand slam off his shoulders, Zverev has progressed serenely in this tournament and put old foe Fritz to the sword in clinical fashion on Court One.
Eight aces in set one helped Zverev gain the upper hand and with Fritz struggling physically, the 29-year-old never looked back and wrapped up victory in one hour and 59 minutes.
The long-standing rivals emerged on court at 3.21pm with Fritz in his white Hugo Boss attire, which has been a regular feature of this last eight run along with the signature move of ripping off his tear-away trousers.
With a healthy advantage in the head-to-head contest, normal service looked set to resume when Fritz sent down two early aces to hold comfortably and immediately fashioned break points.
Zverev impressively repelled Fritz and quickly set about demonstrating this was a different version on the other side of the net after Roland Garros glory, with a clever slice enough to gain the upper hand before a 136mph ace helped the German take the first set in 38 minutes.
A sweet forehand winner by Zverev brought up a break-point chance at the start of the second, but Fritz held before he called for a medical timeout when 2-1 up.
The right knee of Fritz had caused him problems last year and in his 14th match of the grass-court season, it appeared to resurface, but the sixth seed battled on after treatment only for Zverev to find the decisive break to go 5-4 up.
It was greeted by a big roar from second seed Zverev and followed by cheers from The Hill after Fery equally took control on Centre Court.
A simple hold moved Zverev one set away from a first Wimbledon semi-final.
Fritz left for a brief toilet break but if it was not the ultra-consistent serve of Zverev causing problems, then even any joy in lengthy rallies seemed beyond the American and a backhand sent long gifted away another break early in the third.
The Court One crowd attempted to rally Fritz, but Zverev responded with a scintillating backhand return for a potential shot of the day to secure a second break and march on.
Fritz later said at his press conference: “Three games in the match, started feeling my knee.
“I mean, preface what I’m saying by… I don’t know what kind of difference it would have made in the match. He’s going to be extremely tough to beat the way he’s serving.”