British wildcard Arthur Fery roars into Wimbledon quarter-finals as a new star is born

Even on Centre Court and the hallowed grass where silence is usually preserved, Arthur Fery refused to go down quietly.

The last British hope left standing in the singles and Wimbledon local was not done with his fairytale, kicking and screaming in defiance to win a five-set thriller against fellow wildcard Grigor Dimitrov. Roger Federer looked down from the front row of the Royal Box and grinned in approval at Fery’s fight and at the arrival of a new home hope. The days of five-set epics involving a roaring, snarling Brit are not over following Andy Murray’s retirement, after all.

Instead, the 23-year-old Fery once again scrapped from the brink, battling from a break down in the fourth and prevailing in a match tiebreak to end the resurgence of Dimitrov, the former world No 3, winning 7-5 3-6 4-6 6-4 7-6 (10-7) in three hours and 55 minutes. It has already been life-changing for the local lad, born to French parents but who grew up five minutes down the road from the gates of the All England Club; the late bloomer who stayed in school and studied at Stanford, patiently waiting for his moment.

As the light faded on Centre Court, at 8:21pm on Monday evening, Fery gloriously burst through and seized it.

Arthur Fery stunned fellow wildcard Grigor Dimitrov to reach the Wimbledon quarter-finals (Reuters)

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