New Brit Wimbledon hero Arthur Fery set for big payday no matter occurs subsequent

World no.114 Arthur Fery, who grew up in the shadow of the SW19 venue, will pocket a minimum of £480,000 in prize money by getting to the quarter finals, taking his career earnings past £1m

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British wildcard hero Arthur Fery, 23, is now a guaranteed millionaire whether he wins or loses his epic clash against Italian ninth seed Flavio Cobolli.

The world no.114 wildcard, who grew up in the shadow of the SW19 venue, will pocket a minimum of £480,000 in prize money by getting to the quarter-finals, taking his career earnings past £1m. And he’s beaten Cobolli in straight sets earlier this year at the Australian Open.

However, the Italian claims he was ill with an upset stomach when he lost to Fery and remains favourite to beat the Brit.

Wimbledon has fallen in love with ‘in-form’ Fery after he came back to beat pro tennis veteran and former world no. 3 Grigor Dimitrov in a dramatic Centre Court tie breaker on Monday.

Fery has tennis in his blood; his mother, Olivia, was a French professional player. And his dad is Loic, president of the football club FC Lorient.

He moved to England after being born in Sèvres, near Paris, and attended Wimbledon’s King College School before earning a tennis scholarship to Stanford in the US.

While the British public have been shocked by Fery’s epic Wimbledon run, many pros weren’t. Taylor Fritz, ranked 7th in the world, said Fery beat him regularly in training when they were paired in 2024.

The US player said: “I was playing well. I made finals of (the ATP Tour Finals in) Turin the next week. I felt pretty good about my game.

“He was beating me every day. I was like, ‘Yeah, this guy’s really good. This guy can play’.

“He had a good forehand for his size. Unbelievable serve.

“We were playing sets, baseline games. He was cooking me pretty consistently for the week.

“It doesn’t surprise me at all that he’s winning.”

Fery is the first British male wildcard to reach the fourth round at Wimbledon since Andrew Foster in 1993.

It is rare for unseeded Brits to get this far in Wimbledon but Andy Murray’s brother Jamie says it is “written in the stars” that Fery will go all the way to the final on Sunday as it is his birthday.

Standing at 5’9’’, Fery is one of the shortest players to play in Wimbledon this year. Johanna Konta, former world number 1, said the “short king” makes up for his height disadvantage with his “explosive” movement and “fighting spirit”.

She said: “He doesn’t have the height advantage but my goodness he makes up for it with how explosive he is.

“I think that backhand is incredible, his fighting spirit and how he dialled in for that fourth set against Dmitrov.

“You could almost just feel, smell, taste that Dmitrov was kind of faltering a little bit – getting a little stressed.

“How Fery dialled in, in those run-of-points, I mean, it was honestly really astonishing to me for someone who has not played in that situation before.”

Fery has enjoyed full-throated support from Wimbledon fans in the stands and on Henman Hill.

Kyle Edmund, who was the last Brit left in Wimbledon 2018, said Fery “has got to use the crowd” if he wants to win on Wednesday and said he is “on form and dangerous”.

He said: “The crowd support helped him a lot. I don’t think he used it that much until maybe the fourth and fifth set (against Dimitrov) when the physical and mental battles come in.

“He started to lift the crowd. I think it is just experience. He has not been on that court before.

“When he started using it (the crowd), that is when you see people starting to grow.

“The environment and the pressure played a part with the win. He’s got to use it otherwise what is the point of playing at home.”

Fery battled three separate nose bleeds during his four-and-a-half-hour third-round victory over Zizou Bergs on Saturday. He describes it as a medical issue he will address after Wimbledon.

Former British number one Greg Rusedski said of the Wimbledon resident’s run: “It is unexpected, but what I like is his swagger, his mental fortitude, his body language, the way he never gives up. Amazing resilience, amazing belief.

“If he doubted himself, we wouldn’t be talking about him right now. And that’s the mindset that (Jannik) Sinner, (Novak) Djokovic, all the great champions have.

“I like the way he controls the court.

“There’s two games in tennis. There’s the playing, and then there’s the game in between the points that you play and at changeovers, and he does that about as well as anybody.”