Arthur Fery will face Alexander Zverev in the Wimbledon semi-finals on Friday, but the match will be the first on Centre Court
Joe Krishnan and Mark Wakefield Sport Central Audience Writer
12:36, 10 Jul 2026Updated 13:41, 10 Jul 2026
Arthur Fery will take on Alexander Zverev in the Wimbledon semi-final(Image: John Walton/PA Wire)
Tennis icon John McEnroe has potentially created controversy with BBC bosses after seemingly criticising the broadcaster over the scheduling of Arthur Fery’s match against Alexander Zverev at Wimbledon. The British contender, who has reached his maiden Grand Slam semi-final at SW19, is set to face the world No.2 first up on Centre Court.
Both Fery and Zverev competed in their quarter-final ties on Wednesday, roughly 24 hours after the other semi-finalists, Jannik Sinner and Novak Djokovic.
Despite having an entire day less to recover, they will be opening the daytime session at Wimbledon this Friday after the BBC and US broadcasters ‘made a strong recommendation’ to tournament chiefs.
The scheduling has sparked some discontent among British tennis supporters, with Fery’s match starting at 1.30pm, thereby preventing millions of workers from watching live.
One BBC Radio 5 Live caller, who gave her name as ‘Karen’, described it as ‘rather strange’ that Fery’s match was scheduled first, and the 67-year-old McEnroe appeared to agree with her assessment.
“Fery’s on first because U.S TV wants it on as late as possible,” McEnroe said with a chuckle. “The World Cup… what time does England play? They’re trying to, in case Arthur went late with the second match, it would overlap the England match.”
Karen then questioned “what about tomorrow?” before declaring “there’s no excuse, no excuse!” to have Fery on first. McEnroe responded: “I’m going to agree with Karen. The hell with it!”
Former British No. 1 and BBC pundit Tim Henman attempted to bring some perspective to the discussion: “I think you were alluding to the match, sort of, globally. Which is the bigger match? Sinner against the 24-time Grand Slam winner,” he said, before McEnroe interjected: “They [Sinner and Djokovic] played Tuesday, the other guys [Fery and Zverev] played Wednesday.”
Henman said: “Yeah, but they’ve still got 48 hours to recover and so, looking at the British television audience, there was a pretty strong… what’s the word, recommendation from BBC and the U.S.”
Arthur Fery has stromed his way to an unexpected semi-final(Image: Mike Egerton/PA Wire)
McEnroe again refused to back down and interjected once more, saying: “Why did the BBC want the early one? Because there was something coming up later? There was another game… it wasn’t even England.”
However, the final decision on Wimbledon’s scheduling and order of play rests with the All England Lawn Tennis Club.
Having established that Spain and Belgium were due to kick off at 8pm on Friday, the American legend concluded with: “They [Fery and Zverev] could’ve played second, they could’ve played second.”
Karen then raised the point that those unable to watch the match live would find it difficult to avoid having the result spoiled for them. McEnroe quipped in response that people could simply leave work early and take a half day.
It marks the first occasion in 25 years that a British wildcard has reached the last four of a men’s singles draw at Wimbledon. With his quarter-final victory over Flavio Cobolli, Fery became only the fifth man to achieve the feat, following in the footsteps of Henman, Andy Murray, Cam Norrie and Roger Taylor.