{"id":676347,"date":"2026-07-06T08:38:11","date_gmt":"2026-07-06T08:38:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/676347\/"},"modified":"2026-07-06T08:38:11","modified_gmt":"2026-07-06T08:38:11","slug":"arthur-fery-ignores-social-media-hype-as-he-breaks-new-ground-at-wimbledon-wimbledon-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/676347\/","title":{"rendered":"Arthur Fery ignores social media hype as he breaks new ground at Wimbledon | Wimbledon 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">Arthur Fery said he will not pay attention to any social media hype surrounding his breakthrough run at <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/sport\/wimbledon\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" data-component=\"auto-linked-tag\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Wimbledon<\/a>, and claimed he is ready for the elevated attention that comes with being the only British singles player in the second week when he faces Grigor Dimitrov in the fourth round.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">Fery will break new ground on Monday as he competes in the second week of a grand slam tournament for the first time in his career after rolling through <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/sport\/2026\/jul\/04\/british-wildcard-arthur-fery-fights-back-to-beat-zizou-bergs-in-wimbledon-epic\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">three wins last week<\/a>. He had never previously passed the second round of a grand slam championship and so this run has naturally generated much attention.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">\u201cI won\u2019t look at social media,\u201d Fery said. \u201cOr very little. Yeah, my WhatsApp and all that. Obviously, there\u2019s a lot of messages and a lot of support and I\u2019m super grateful for it, but I obviously can\u2019t let myself fall into that trap. And I\u2019m sure I\u2019ll have time after the tournament\u2019s done, whenever that is, to enjoy.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">Although this is the best result of his career by a clear distance, it is hardly shocking for Fery, who has shown his potential on numerous occasions this year. He started the season by qualifying for the Australian Open and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/sport\/2026\/jan\/18\/britains-arthur-fery-delivers-australian-open-upset-with-win-over-20th-seed-flavio-cobolli\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">defeating Flavio Cobolli<\/a>, the French Open finalist later in the year, in the first round.<\/p>\n<p>Arthur Fery in action during his third-round victory over Zizou Bergs of Belgium. Photograph: Ben Whitley\/PA<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">Fery was also the last British man standing at the Queen\u2019s Club tournament, where he narrowly lost his quarter-final match in three sets against the eventual champion Francisco Cer\u00fandolo. Considering he has improved steadily over the years rather than appearing in this position out of nowhere, he feels he is well prepared for this moment.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">\u201cIt\u2019s something that\u2019s been in the works for a long time,\u201d Fery said. \u201cAgain, I haven\u2019t gone from zero to this suddenly. So it\u2019s something that you prepare yourself for. And I feel like you only really break through when you\u2019re ready to. Otherwise you don\u2019t get through matches like I did today. So yeah, I feel like I\u2019m ready.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">\u201cI mean there\u2019s obviously going to be differences. It\u2019s not going to be like a completely different life that I\u2019m leading Sunday in two weeks, unless I win the tournament. But yeah, I\u2019m ready for it. I\u2019m just going to stay grounded and not going to change really.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">Fery has had the good fortune of avoiding seeded players throughout his run this year. Although that trend will continue in the fourth round against a fellow wildcard, there is no doubt about Dimitrov\u2019s pedigree. He is a former No 3 and a previous semi-finalist here, with a ranking that does not reflect his ability.<\/p>\n<p>A delighted Grigor Dimitrov beams after beating Matteo Berrettini of Italy on Saturday. Photograph: Daniel Kopatsch\/Getty Images<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">Dimitrov was ranked No 21 at Wimbledon last year when he led Jannik Sinner, the top seed, by two sets in the fourth round before he was forced to withdraw with a pectoral injury that sidelined him for months and left a heavy mark on his mentality, leading to the toughest year of his career. Having been handed a main-draw wildcard, he has put together one of the most <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/sport\/2026\/jul\/04\/grigor-dimitrov-five-set-wimbledon-win-matteo-berrettini-tennis\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">emotional and heartwarming runs<\/a> of the past few years, finally addressing the many mental scars he carried with him in the aftermath of his efforts last year.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">This is certainly a big opportunity for Dimitrov to advance to the quarter-finals, which he seemed destined to do last year, but he also refused to underestimate the challenge presented by Fery.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">\u201cIt\u2019s not going to be an easy match. I have seen him play. He\u2019s a great competitor. He\u2019s playing at home. I mean, second week, Wimbledon, big court. I can totally get it,\u201d Dimitrov said, smiling, on the level of support Fery will receive.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">\u201cNo, I\u2019m going to approach this match as every other match. There\u2019s nothing has changed on my side. I\u2019m just really going to focus on my side of the net and what I want to be doing out there and achieving on the court.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Arthur Fery said he will not pay attention to any social media hype surrounding his breakthrough run at&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":676348,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[101,118,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-676347","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-sports","tag-tennis","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/676347","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=676347"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/676347\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/676348"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=676347"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=676347"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=676347"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}