Arthur Fery’s career is just getting started. Even if the ‘Ferytale’ is over at Wimbledon

LONDON (AP) — Arthur Fery has some adjustments to make following his star turn at Wimbledon. Starting with his vacation planning.

Fery clearly didn’t see a semifinal run coming — did anyone? — because the British wild card expected to be in Greece this past week rather than on Centre Court earning standing ovations.

“I was meant to be coming back from holiday today,” the smiling Fery said after losing to Alexander Zverev 7-6 (0), 6-2, 6-4 on Friday.

Fery became the talk of the town — his town, actually, since he grew up in the neighborhood — as he progressed into the second week.

He met Britain’s Queen Camilla before walking out onto Centre Court and beating Flavio Cobolli in the quarterfinals, becoming the first wild card in 25 years to reach the men’s singles semifinals at the All England Club.

The “Ferytale” got a reality check, though, against the big-serving Zverev, the new French Open champion.

“I didn’t play a good tiebreak,” said Fery, who saw a 139 mph (224 kph) serve from the German on the first point before committing a double fault and an unforced error to see the tiebreaker slip away.

“He was always putting constant pressure. I didn’t get much rhythm, just not many rallies,” Fery added. “Just balls coming back a little bit faster than the other days and what I’m used to. Not as sharp with my footwork and mentally. Against a player like that, it adds up pretty quick.”

Zverev, who will face defending champion Jannik Sinner in Sunday’s final, told the Centre Court crowd that Fery is just getting started.

“His game is very, very good. I think he has a lot of things in his game that he can still improve, which is a positive thing, because he just made semifinals of Wimbledon for the first time,” Zverev said. “If you know that you’re just starting and you’re making semifinals of Slams, that’s positive.”

Where does Fery go from here?

Fery entered the grass-court tournament ranked No. 114. Thanks to his deep run, he’ll break into the top 50 for the first time, moving up to No. 36 when the latest rankings are announced Monday.

“It’s going to change things, for sure. I’m going to be able to play tour events at least for a full year, hopefully for more,” said Fery, who turns 24 on Sunday. “It’s going to be a challenge to deal with all of that, but I’m conscious of it already and that’s the first step.”

Fery hopes to recharge a bit before the hard-court season and his first U.S. Open main draw.

On the potential for a rearranged Greece trip he said, “We’ll see if that’s still in the cards.”

Fery was then asked if his friends had gone to Greece without him.

“One of my friends went ahead of time hoping I would lose,” he said as reporters chuckled, “so I could join him. No, he came back two days later and was supporting me.”

Well, he can certainly afford to make new plans. Fery earned 900,000 pounds ($1.2 million) in prize money by reaching the Wimbledon semifinals. That’s well over his pre-Wimbledon career earnings of $883,618.

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AP tennis: https://apnews.com/hub/tennis