Britain’s Arthur Fery crashed out in straight sets to Germany’s Alexander Zverev as his fairytale run at Wimbledon came to an end in the semi-finals.
Fery was bidding to become the second Briton after Andy Murray to reach the men’s singles final at Wimbledon in the Open Era of tennis, which began in 1968, but he was slowly worn down by Zverev, who will contest his fifth career Grand Slam final on Sunday.
The French Open champion took a little time to work out how to beat Fery but used his natural aggressive groundstrokes and big serve to see off the new British No 1 7-6 (7-0) 6-2 6-4.
Fery said he would use the crowd to ‘my advantage’ and he showed no semi-final nerves as he went toe-to-toe with Zverev in some long baseline rallies from the off.
Zverev’s 7-0 Surge Silences Centre Court
But Zverev did break early to take a 3-1 lead as he took advantage of some unforced errors from Fery. The 23-year-old responded straight away and it was soon 3-3.
Fery was never the same and was broken early in the second set after a point had to be replayed when a ball boy collected a ball when 0-30 down. It came at the same time Zverev found a lovely rhythm on his forehand side and picked up the pace of his groundstrokes.
Zverev’s 3-1 advantage rapidly became a 5-1 advantage as he did not face a break point in reaching the second set.
The energy from the crowd was now leaking away and it showed on the court as Fery went 0-30 down on his second service game. He recovered to hold but couldn’t repeat the feat in his next service game and fell behind 4-2.
Zverev looked poised to break a second time when he went up 0-40 but Fery, encouraged by the crowd, saved the three break points then hit two aces. But Fery could not break back and Zverev cruised into his first final at Wimbledon.
