Wildcard Arthur Fery Sweeps Aside Cobolli to Reach Wimbledon Semi-Finals

Arthur Fery's improbable wild-card run at Wimbledon rolled on Wednesday as the Briton beat Italy's Flavio Cobolli in straight sets to book a place in the semi-finals.

Riding the energy of a raucous Centre Court and coping with sweltering heat, Fery delivered another superb display to win 6-4 7-6 (7-4) 6-0. The result makes him only the fifth British man to reach the last four of the singles in the Open era, joining Andy Murray, Tim Henman, Cameron Norrie and Roger Taylor.

The 23-year-old's next opponent is Germany's Alexander Zverev, who dispatched American Taylor Fritz 6-4 6-4 6-2. The other semi-final, to be played on Friday, pits Jannik Sinner against Novak Djokovic.

"It seems to get better and better every match. I can't believe it. It's incredible," Fery said afterwards. "I played Flavio earlier this year and beat him in Australia so I knew I could do it. It gave me a boost of confidence."

There was little sign of nerves from the home favourite in the opening set. Fery repeatedly pushed Cobolli behind the baseline in the rallies and held his own serve without difficulty. Cobolli carved out the first break-point opportunity of the match in the seventh game but could not convert, and Fery struck in the tenth game to break the Italian and pocket the set.

Cobolli hit back at the start of the second set by breaking Fery, only for the Briton to level immediately at 2-2. With neither man creating another break-point chance, the set went to a tie-break, where Fery's aggressive hitting and an early mini-break carried him through.

By then Cobolli looked drained both physically and mentally. Fery broke him at the start of the third set, fought off crucial break points in the second game, and then added a double break. Playing with ever more freedom, he ran away with the set 6-0.

Fery is only the second wild card to get this far at Wimbledon, after Goran Ivanisevic in 2001. "I've never been in this position before. I've been doing a great job over the past 10 days," he said.

Earlier on Wednesday, the Czech Republic's Linda Noskova reached her first Grand Slam semi-final by beating Belgium's Elise Mertens 6-3 7-5. She will meet Ukraine's Marta Kostyuk, who eased past Italy's Jasmine Paolini 6-3 6-2. Both women's semi-finals are scheduled for Thursday, when Coco Gauff also faces Karolina Muchova.