He can’t play on Court 18 any longer. Arthur Fery had requested his lucky arena for this third round match but after this epic, comeback five-set victory the Wimbledon schedulers have no option: the last Brit standing must step up to the big stages.
Belgian Zizou Bergs – named after Zinedine ‘Zizou’ Zidane by his football mad dad – won two of the first three sets and led by 4-1 in both the fourth and the fifth. But the 5ft 9in Fery kept plugging away and came through 2-6, 7-5, 2-6, 7-6, 7-6.
‘No words for it, honestly. I don’t know what is going on right now. It will take time to digest it,’ said Fery, who is into the world’s top 100 for the first time. ‘ I just tried to stay in the match, just backing myself as a competitor.
‘I was down for pretty much the whole match, managed to scramble back from two breaks and 4-1 in the fifth, and just tried to put up as much of a fight as I could.’
As one might expect from a Stanford graduate, Fery summed up the match perfectly right there. It was a brilliant performance, characterised by some wonderful, subtle tennis but most of all by an ability to stay level-headed amid the fluctuating form of his opponent. Fery got help from the other side of the court, of course he did: Bergs showed such a propensity for choking he might be best advised to stick to soup for his supper tonight. This was the worst meltdown by a Zizou since the Materazzi headbutt in the 2006 World Cup final. But Fery was always right there when his opponent’s level dropped.
The 23-year-old has been suffering from nosebleeds this year, with another today – it is a good job the Wimbledon towels are red this year. That is a nosebleed in every match so far – there were two in this one – and Fery admits they are partly caused by stress. If that’s the case and this run carries on much longer he might need a mid-match transfusion.
Arthur Fery, the last Brit standing at Wimbledon, will have to abandon his lucky court to take to the biggest arenas
Nosebleed No1 came after four games, No2 at the end of the fourth set and No3 at the climax of the fifth. Once his Wimbledon campaign is done, his team will attempt to get to the root of the issue.
‘It is a problem I am going to address,’ he said. ‘It has happened before but it’s not that common.
‘It happened at times today when I didn’t want to stop, when momentum was with me. I know it annoying for the opponent. It gives me some extra time to rest sometimes I guess.’
There was a lengthy delay as a trainer was called to the court to stem that first flow. If only the tide of games flooding in the direction of Bergs could be so easily dammed, as he eased through the first set and took an early break in the second.
Bergs was taking the ball early and ripping it into the corners, using the drop shot as the coup de grace after forcing Fery back.
All the Brit could do was hold his nerve and wait for Bergs to begin to miss – which, all of a sudden, he did. There were 14 Belgian unforced errors as Fery took the second set.
He had a foothold in the match but a careless game at 2-2 in the second started the flow again – no, not the nose – as Bergs took six games in a row. And that, effectively, was that.
Fery is punching above his weight here. At 5ft 9in – and when you stand next to him that feels if anything on the high side – he is the second smallest player in the top 100, after Argentina’s Sebastian Baez.
But the 5ft 9in man with the multi-millionaire dad and the weakness for nosebleeds beat Zizou Bergs in the third round
Baez and Dan Evans have been touchstones for him and his coaches as they look to concoct a gameplan that can see him succeed in the land of giants. They are clearly on the right track: Fery has lovely hands at the net so can come forward, Evans-like, but has the solidity off the ground to grind opponents down like Baez.
A synthesis of those two skills was required here. As Bergs took a 4-1 lead in the fourth set, Fery launched a swashbuckling fightback and by the time he had recovered to 5-5 he was lasering a 101mph forehand down the line – not bad for a shorter man.
Then came the tiebreak and another sublime forehand rifled down Bergs’ line. That was to go 2-1 ahead and on the next point Fery showed all his hand skills, dinking a forehand volley cross court then lunching to his left to cut off the reply with a backhand volley.
When we talk about the disadvantages of being a smaller tennis player, much of the focus is on the serve. But it is also a significant factor that covering the net becomes so much more difficult due to the narrower wingspan than one’s peers. Fery makes up for this with the softness of his hands, meaning he is still able to control the ball even at the extremity of his reach.
Before the fifth set there was an absurd delay of almost 15 minutes. Fery left the court to change, Bergs received some treatment. Fery returned, then Bergs decided he would like to go and get changed too. He got back then Fery got a third nosebleed. Man alive lads, should we all just go to dinner and come back when you’ve sorted yourselves out?
From 1-1 he lost 11 points in a row as Bergs took a 4-1 lead, just like in the fourth set. Only a single break of serve this time, but surely Fery’s race was run? Not so.
At 4-5, serving to stay in the match, Fery’s nose bled again and there was another lengthy delay. This was a terrific match but a good 45 minutes of the 4 hour and 38 minute runtime was spent faffing around.
The match tiebreak (first to 10) arrived and, as was the case throughout the match, when the moment was most tense you fancied Fery. He took an 8-4 lead, headed for the changeover, applied one last layer of sealant to his left nostril then sealed the biggest win of his life.
He collapsed to the court and lay flat on his back, screaming into the evening sky.
He arose and ran to his Court 18 ultras, performing the Jurgen Klopp-style triple fist pump. He has formed a bond with Wimbledon’s most characterful court but that bond must now be broken – the fourth round and Centre Court awaits.
A final word: Fery is the son of Loic, a French businessman with a fortune of around £275million who used to own L’Orient FC. Until Saturday, that was what Fery was best known for – he was the football club owner’s kid. Now he is just Arthur Fery – top 100 tennis player.
