Published: 08:37 BST, 30 August 2026 | Updated: 08:39 BST, 30 August 2026
If you are a British wildcard let loose on the Wimbledon draw to go on a miraculous run to reach the semi-finals, how do you follow up this feat? If you’re Arthur Fery, you make a final in your next event.
It has been exactly 50 days since the British 24-year-old stepped onto Centre Court to end his eye-popping performance at the Championships with a last-four defeat by French Open winner Alexander Zverev.
Then, Fery was rewarded a rankings rise which took him from 114th to world No 36, and the British No 1 spot – not to mention a bumper £900,000 payday. Now, another milestone after the 5ft 9in French-born Fery played his first ATP tour-level final overnight, on the eve of his first US Open entry.
For a while, there was nothing. As quickly as he was catapulted British public consciousness, Fery slipped out of the spotlight as he took an extended break after his travails in SW19, a short drop shot away from where he went to school. Rather than step back onto court in Toronto at the beginning of August, as his opponent in that semi-final Zverev did, Fery took another two weeks before returning to the Cincinnati Masters draw as the 32nd seed.
Fery is looking ahead to the US Open on the back of reaching a final at Winston-Salem
In Ohio, an early meeting with world No 5 Alex de Minaur in the second round made Cincinnati somewhat of a false start. But rather than head to New York and immediately begin preparations for the final Grand Slam of the year, Fery has played himself into roaring form at the Winston-Salem Open.
A 250-ranked event, the lowest on the elite tour, Winston-Salem is held on the campus of Wake Forest University in North Carolina. A blink-and-you’ll-miss-it destination, but with the power to attract big names like Daniil Medvedev and Stefanos Tsitsipas looking for a late tune-up before the Big Apple.
And Fery’s decision to get live points in his legs after a summer away from competitive action paid off, with the Stanford University graduate booking his final against No 2 seed Ignacio Buse. Although unable to bypass the rising Peruvian star, who beat him 6-3, 6-2, the run takes Fery to 33rd in the live rankings.
There are few who have been in Fery’s shoes and experienced the feeling of being catapulted into the top 40 in the world, but French player Lois Boisson is among them. Last year, when handed a wildcard into Roland-Garros, Boisson made to the semi-finals in front of a gobsmacked home crowd, having defeated key scalps including 2026 winner Mirra Andreeva and US No 1 Jessica Pegula en route. A month earlier, she had lost the first round of a lowly WTA 125k event in St Malo.
‘What it changes is the schedule,’ Boisson told Daily Mail Sport when asked about the realities of a sharp jump up the rankings. ‘It’s totally not what was scheduled at first (after that win).
Lois Boisson knows all about the challenge of being catapulted to the world's top 40
‘I wasn’t on the tour before, I was doing ITF events and Challengers. So then it changed a lot and I was questioning, “what do you play? What kind of tournament?” You have to adapt to this new area. Being with new people, only the top players, the top tournaments.’
Rather than beg for a wildcard to enter the small draw, now Fery could enter Winston-Salem as the fourth seed and he scythed through his opponents accordingly.
After teaching a lesson to Lleyton Hewitt’s 17-year-old son Cruz in straight sets, Fery swept aside Mees Rottgering. A testing three-set clash with home favourite Aleksandar Kovacevic brought to mind the dogged, never-say-die attitude of his Wimbledon run as Fery battled back from a set down to edge the second, and blow away the US opponent in the third.
