Zverev turns the tables to reach a first Wimbledon semifinal, where Fery’s fairytale awaits
Alexander Zverev finally reached a first Wimbledon semifinal, ending a seven-match losing run to Taylor Fritz (No 6) with a 6-4, 6-4, 6-2 win – but the day belonged to Arthur Fery, the world No. 114 wild card who beat Flavio Cobolli (No 9) 6-4, 7-6 (4), 6-0 to become the first wild card in a men’s Grand Slam semifinal since Ivanisevic in 2001.
Alexander Zverev, 2026 | © Action Plus / PsNewz
Alexander Zverev and Arthur Fery will meet in a Wimbledon semifinal that could scarcely pair two more different stories – a Grand Slam champion reaching the last four here for the first time, and a wild card ranked No. 114 living a fortnight beyond his dreams.
Zverev, the German second seed, beat American No. 6 seed Taylor Fritz 6-4, 6-4, 6-2 to reach his first Wimbledon semifinal, the one major where he had never gone so deep. It is his 12th Grand Slam semifinal and completes the set: the Roland-Garros champion has now reached the last four at all four majors, one of only a handful of active players to do so.
Wimbledon had long been the anomaly on Zverev’s résumé – the only major where he had never reached the semifinals, and where he fell in the first round only last year. Reaching the last four at the 10th attempt lays that to rest. The win was also a reckoning: Zverev had lost his previous seven meetings with Fritz, a streak that included a defeat in the Halle semifinals a fortnight ago, but this time he turned the tables, tightening his grip set by set before running away with a one-sided third.
Fery produced the result of the day
For Fritz, the defeat ended a bid to become the first American man in back-to-back Wimbledon semifinals since Andy Roddick, and to carry American hopes of a first male major champion since Roddick in 2003 deeper into the fortnight.
Fery, meanwhile, produced the result of the day. The Englishman beat Italian No. 9 seed Flavio Cobolli 6-4, 7-6 (4), 6-0, finishing with a bagel, to become the first wild card to reach a men’s Grand Slam semifinal since Goran Ivanisevic, who went on to win the title in 2001. He is also the first British man in a Wimbledon semifinal since Andy Murray in 2016.
The scale of it is hard to overstate. Ranked No. 114, Fery is among only a few players in the Open Era to reach a maiden Grand Slam semifinal with so few tour-level wins behind him – just 11. A Stanford graduate who cracked the top 200 for the first time only last October, he sank flat on his back on the Centre Court grass as the final ball dropped.
The missing piece
His fortnight has been built on nerve – a five-set escape past Zizou Bergs, another against former semifinalist Grigor Dimitrov, whom he beat to a standing ovation on Monday – and on a temperament that has not wavered under the weight of a home crowd. On Wednesday he found something cleaner and more ruthless, overwhelming Cobolli, the Roland-Garros finalist, in a closing set that yielded not a single game.
Cobolli’s exit also ended Italy’s hopes of sending multiple players into the semifinals; with Jasmine Paolini beaten earlier in the day, only world No. 1 Jannik Sinner still carries the country’s flag into the last four.
Now their paths converge. For Zverev, a first Wimbledon final stands two wins away, the missing piece for a player who has already reached the championship match at the other three majors. For Fery, everything from here is uncharted: victory would make him the lowest-ranked Wimbledon finalist of the professional era and cap one of the most improbable runs the grass has seen.
