Many great stories have unfolded at the 2026 Wimbledon Championships, but none better than that of Arthur Fery.
Ranked 114th in the world before the tournament, the Briton received a wildcard at the All England Club, and he has certainly made the most of it.
Fery was the only British player across men’s and women’s singles to make it to the third round at Wimbledon, with the 23-year-old beating Damir Dzumhur, Otto Virtanen and Zizou Bergs en route to the round of 16.
How high can Arthur Fery go in the world rankings?
Given his Centre Court debut in round four, he took the tennis world by storm, defeating former world number three Grigor Dimitrov in a thrilling five-setter to reach the quarterfinals, where he then overcame Roland Garros finalist Flavio Cobolli.
In the semifinals, Fery was denied by a red-hot Alexander Zverev, who advanced to his second consecutive Grand Slam final.
Steve Johnson tells Arthur Fery what to do to stay in the top 50
Despite the loss, Fery has skyrocketed up the rankings to world number 36, a position that will see him automatically qualify for the main draws of Grand Slams.
Speaking on the Nothing Major podcast, former American player Steve Johnson said of Fery: “He has 12 months now to really put his foot down and just gain points week after week.
“He is going to be in all the big tournaments. He is top 40 in the live rankings now. He is going to be in Cincinnati, US Open, Shanghai, Paris, Basel. He is going to be in all the big tournaments. He should play every event and see where it can take him.
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“We saw [Valentin] Vacherot do that last year. He won Shanghai, got his opportunity, and now look at him. He has pretty much firmly supplanted himself in the top 25 or 30.
“If the confidence can be there, and he’s a confident kid coming from Stanford. He has had some injury issues, which is why I don’t think he’s popped off as quickly as he would have liked.
“But he has a long runway in the next 12 months to take care of business and keep himself in the top 50 and make a great career for himself.”
Arthur Fery has a great chance to be seeded at the US Open
As the new world number 36, Fery is just four spots away from being seeded at Grand Slams, with the top 32 players in the world getting that luxury.
With the US Open set to begin in late August, Fery now has a great chance to be seeded at Flushing Meadows, due to the amount of points he can pick up between now and then.
There are several hard-court tune-up events leading into the US Open, including two ATP Masters 1000 tournaments: The Canadian Open and the Cincinnati Open.
Having not played in either Masters event last year, Fery will have the opportunity to collect a big sum of ATP points with a deep run at one of the two, or even both.
He can also enter competitions such as the Washington Open and the Winston-Salem Open prior to the US Open to try and boost his ranking.
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