British wildcard Arthur Fery burst onto the scene at this year’s Wimbledon before reaching the men’s singles semi-finals, and he’s already eyeing up his next opponents
Arthur Fery has invited Prince George and Princess Charlotte to play tennis with him after meeting the royals following his remarkable run at Wimbledon. Last week, Fery made history by becoming the first British wildcard to reach the semi-finals of a Grand Slam in the open era.
The French-born star attended the men’s singles final on Sunday and met the Prince and Princess of Wales, along with children George and Charlotte. Prince William and Princess Catherine congratulated Fery on his achievement while watching Jannik Sinner claim his second successive men’s singles title at the All England Club.
Fery revealed that he invited George and Charlotte for a hit. “I know the whole family are all tennis fans,” he said. “So I told her if her kids ever wanted to hit, I’m free.”
Asked whether he thinks they’ll take him up on his offer, Fery replied: “Let’s see, I don’t know. Let’s see if I get the call up.”
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Fery shot to stardom during this year’s tournament, although a semi-final clash with Alexander Zverev proved a step too far. When he arrived at SW19 as the world number 114, Fery had never gone further than the second round of a Grand Slam.
The 24-year-old, who celebrated his birthday on Sunday, is now set to be confirmed at the new British number one and rise to 36 in the world rankings. Fery has also amassed a cool £900,000 in prize money thanks to his exploits.
Suddenly a household name, Fery is braced for the attention that he’s likely to receive. “Yes, even already a little bit during the tournament I was thinking of life after and how I was going to handle all that because we’ve seen it with people who’ve broken through in that manner before,” he told Sky News.
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“With Emma (Raducanu) obviously, Emma won a Slam and I didn’t but there was still a lot of media attention. It is going to be really important to handle that – the expectation from myself and also the public.”
Fery sees the plus sides, though, adding: “It means I can play the top players week in week out and compare myself to them and keep working on my tennis.
“I am going to have to get accustomed to the full life of tour with more media attention and all of that but I think I’m ready for it. It is going to be a first as well playing the US Open. I didn’t even play qualifiers last year so it’s going be a great experience.”