Arthur Fery believes he is at the start of a new chapter in his career as he returns to competition for the first time since his surprise run to the Wimbledon semi-finals as a wildcard.
Fery will compete for the first time in a month at the Cincinnati Open this week, after opting to take a short holiday and training block following the most demanding fortnight of his career at Wimbledon.
“It’s the first time that I’ve broken through like that and I’m going to be able to play only tour events, so I’m looking forward to that,” he said.
Fery arrives in Cincinnati at his career-high ranking of No 36 and despite this being his first direct entrance into a Masters 1000 event he is seeded No 32 and will receive a first-round bye. He awaits either James Duckworth of Australia or a qualifier in round two, with a potential meeting with the fifth seed Alex de Minaur looming in round three.
Although Fery’s new ranking is a great achievement in itself, its most important utility is the opportunities it opens up for his scheduling. It has massive implications for the 24-year-old’s career as he will now be able directly to enter the main draw of all regular events on the ATP tour.
Until now, Fery had spent his professional career competing at the lower-level ATP Challenger events. He sat outside the top 150 at the beginning of the grass court season, still far from being ranked highly enough to directly enter most ATP events.
Fery’s ranking of No 114 at Wimbledon appeared to position him for months of trying to bridge the gap between the two tours, a tricky undertaking that requires players to choose between competing in ATP Challenger events and the qualifying rounds of ATP tour events. Instead, he will completely bypass that stage.
Perhaps the most pressing question surrounding Fery after such an unexpected run was how representative his performances at Wimbledon were of his actual level. Fery showed his mental toughness and skill throughout the tournament, dragging himself from the brink of defeat in consecutive five-set wins, against Zizou Bergs and Grigor Dimitrov, before dismantling the French Open finalist Flavio Cobolli to reach the semi-final, where he lost against Alexander Zverev.
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However, this was also a unique situation – competing on grass, in front of a home crowd and against players unfamiliar with his game has its benefits. These tournaments will allow him to see exactly how his game matches up to the elite. Fery, for his part, believes completely that this is where he belongs. “I was always confident that I could play with top players. But yeah, now having the ranking to back it up is really great. And obviously you’re playing great players week in, week out, so it’s difficult.
“It’s a difficult sport with fine margins, so you’ve got to have a lot of self-belief. I think it comes from just proving to myself that I have beaten top players and if I do the right things and train well, I feel good on court when I’m with those top guys.”