All good things must come to an end. For Arthur Fery and the British public, it came to an earlier-than-desired end.

With a power-packed performance, second seed Alexander Zverev ousted wildcard Fery 7-6(0), 6-2, 6-4 to enter his first Wimbledon final.

In Sunday’s marquee clash, he will either meet seven-time winner Novak Djokovic or defending champion and World No. 1 Jannik Sinner.

“I hope I can play a junior,” said Zverev, to widespread laughter on Centre Court. “Whether it’s the defending champion or somebody who’s won here some 48 times like Novak Djokovic, it’s not going to be easy. But I have to trust myself and believe I can win. That’s what I’m going to do.”

Friday’s effort was the first step towards that. Zverev was no doubt the favourite, but playing to expectations is not always easy, especially on the biggest stages and in front of a partisan crowd. Flavio Cobolli experienced this first-hand in his blow-out quarterfinal loss to Fery.

The 23-year-old Brit was fairly successful in keeping the burly German under check for much of the first set, and admirably dragged him to a tie-break. Zverev had, in fact, broken to 3-1 earlier, only to relinquish the advantage with some tardy net play.

Fery blocked many a return, and generously used the slice to get the ball low and deep to deny Zverev the high contact point he very much desires.

At 3-4, 30-30 the reigning French Open titlist had a look on the Fery serve, but the local lad wriggled out with a deft drop shot.

But in the tie-break, Zverev lifted his level and pocketed it without conceding a point. There were thunderous serves and meaty drives, and he finished it off with a neat cross-court return winner.

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When he went 5-1 up in the second, the contest was as good as over. Cloudy skies had given way to some glorious summer sunshine but light did not fall on Fery’s game.

At 1-5, 30-30, the crowd tried to pump Fery up and he repaid the backing with a fine inside-out winner. A few minutes later, he even won the game but the set was destined to be Zverev’s.

In the third stanza, Zverev broke to love at 2-2, and went on a hot run by claiming the next seven points. Fery stemmed the rot by holding from 0-40 down, with the high-light being two pin-point aces which received the loudest of approvals from the audience.

But Zverev silenced the fans and shut down the contest in no time with two nerve-less holds.

“It’s amazing,” said Zverev after ensuring that for the fourth straight year a men’s player would have made the singles final at both the French Open and Wimbledon. “This is the surface I have struggled with the most, but now I am in the final.

“I know that 99.999% of the lot here wanted Arthur to win. But still, it was such a fair crowd and incredible atmosphere. I enjoyed it,” added the 29-year-old, who is set to leapfrog the injured Carlos Alcaraz into second position in Monday’s ATP rankings.

Published on Jul 10, 2026