'All aboard the Fery' Wimbledon wildcard lights up SW19 - and he's tipped for the top

A week ago, very few people knew who Arthur Fery was. But he has been propelled into the limelight as the last man standing following a disastrous start to Wimbledon for British players.

- Rachel Hall

Fery, who is ranked No 114 in the world, defied expectations on Monday night when he triumphed on Centre Court over one of the top players for most of the past decade, former world No 3 Grigor Dimitrov.

Fery, 23, has become the first British wildcard - a player ranked too low to receive an automatic place in the draw - to reach the singles quarterfinal, and the fourth British man to do so this century.

For Fery’s former coaches, that is no surprise. Paul Goldstein, who coached him at Stanford University, told the Guardian that Fery’s “magical run” was “so well earned, so well deserved”.

“Adjectives that come to mind are poised, composed: the first time ever on Centre Court, playing in front of tens of thousands, many millions more watching on TV, being the last British male player standing in this event and the responsibility that comes with that - we use superlatives like extraordinary and exceptional often, but it’s so appropriate for what he did,” he said.

Goldstein, who was hoping to secure a ticket to see Fery against Italy’s Flavio Cobolli today, was first contacted by him when Fery was a teenager at school looking for a way to continue both his studies and tennis at a high level.