Andre Agassi’s former coach believes that Arthur Fery is top dog among the Wimbledon semi-finalists when it comes to one facet of the game.
Heading into this year’s Wimbledon, the 23-year-old was outside the top 100, and there was little fanfare surrounding him, despite a breakout quarter-final run at Queen’s Club.
As his fellow Brits fell in the early stages of the championships, the diminutive Fery stood tall and overcame hurdle after hurdle to very much earn his wildcard.
The 5ft 9in player overturned hefty deficits in the fourth and fifth sets in the third round against Zizou Bergs and also fought back from two sets to one down against Grigor Dimitrov, before prevailing in five sets in the last 16.
Fery saved his best performance for his straight-set quarter-final win over French Open finalist Flavio Cobolli, with the home favourite serving up a bagel in the third set to the ninth seed.
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Remarkably, Fery is now the British No 1 and is at a career-high ranking of 36 heading into his Wimbledon semi-final against Roland Garros champion Alexander Zverev.
This will be his toughest test so far but the way he has risen to the occasion, some would not be surprised to see him reach the showpiece final on Sunday.
Ahead of the last four matches between Fery and Zverev and Jannik Sinner and Djokovic, Agassi’s old coach Brad Gilbert has waxed lyrical about the former Stanford University student.
According to the American, the Brit moves better than any of his rivals heading into the business end of Wimbledon.
Gilbert said on Gill Gross’ YouTube channel, “You know who is a very good returner? Like surprisingly tremendous on grass. He’s [Fery] the best mover of the four guys left, and you know what he has that none of the other guys have? He’s got this dangerous backhand return.
“It’s like, count one alligator, two alligators, and then he flies in. He doesn’t do the chip and charge, he does the delayed backhand return and he makes a ton of returns and for a little guy with not big reach, he gets a lot of returns in play and changes speeds.
“He’s making a ton of returns, so this will be interesting now that Zverev is playing someone he doesn’t know and the guy is playing well. Zizou Bergs had him dead to rights, two sets to one, 4-1 double break, 4-1 in the fifth… this guy is surviving.”
Sinner, Djokovic, and Zverev may all disagree with Gilbert’s point about the movement. While Djokovic is 39, he is still an excellent mover, and the Italian’s ability to slide on grass courts may be unmatched right now.
Zverev moves exceptionally well for a man of 6’6 but Fery is tremendously nimble about the court, too. Whether he can use that speed to his advantage on Friday remains to be seen.
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