The making of Britain's new tennis hero: Arthur Fery's coaches reveal the qualities that convinced them Wimbledon stardom was inevitable

By LETTICE BROMOVSKY AT WIMBLEDON Published: 21:25, 7 July 2026 | Updated: 01:35, 8 July 2026 When Arthur Fery walked on to Wimbledon's Centre Court with millions watching and a former champion in the stands, many players would have felt the weight of the occasion. But Fery looked as though he belonged there. The 23-year-old's remarkable rise from promising junior to Britain's newest tennis sensation has been built on a quality his childhood coaches spotted before the trophies arrived: an almost unusual calm under pressure. Now, after producing one of the great Wimbledon shocks by defeating former world No 3 Grigor Dimitrov in a five-set epic, Fery has announced himself on the biggest stage. But those who have known him longest insist this moment has not come from nowhere. 'It's his personality,' says Paul Goldstein, the Stanford coach who helped guide Fery through his college years, 'he's so poised and composed'. Goldstein watched as Fery, then a teenager from Wimbledon, chose a less obvious route to professional tennis. While many of his peers left education behind to chase the tour, Fery continued his studies at King's College School before heading to Stanford University in California - a decision that would transform him as both a player and a person. Arthur Fery's run to the quarter-finals has taken the whole of Wimbledon by surprise Fery, right, pictured with Paul Goldstein, his former coach at Stanford, during a match for Stanford University 'When we recruited him, he was probably less sought after than he should have been because of his interests outside tennis,' Goldstein said. 'But that was Arthur. He wanted to challenge himself intellectually and become the best player he could be.' Goldstein was so determined not to miss the biggest match of his former pupil's life that he boarded a 5,400-mile flight from California without even knowing whether he would get into Centre Court. Failing that, he insisted he would happily watch from Henman Hill. 'I'll do whatever it takes,' he said. 'The biggest emotion I feel is bursting with joy for that young man.' At Stanford, Fery became one of the leading college players in America, rising to No 1 nationally and earning the respect of teammates and coaches alike. The legendary doubles playing Bryan brothers, who watched him during his college days, saw something familiar. 'He reminded us a little bit of Nishikori,' said Bob Bryan. 'Same build, beautiful backhand, can change direction.' But it was not just his tennis that stood out. Fery stands in the middle of his team members with Mr Goldstein pictured on the right Wild card entrant Arthur Fery secured a quarter-finals place after winning in five sets 'He was a quiet leader at Stanford,' Bryan added. 'All the players really respected him and they knew his ability. I don't think this is a big surprise to anyone who knows Arthur.' That experience, he believes, helped prepare Fery for the intensity of Wimbledon. 'He shows he can handle pressure moments like that on Centre Court, playing for the crowd in this country in a first-time moment, the biggest moment of his life. He's very mature and I think Stanford has a lot to do with that.' But long before he was upsetting Grand Slam semi-finalists, Fery was a four-year-old taking his first lessons at a local club, Westside Lawn Tennis Club under Alison Taylor, who coached him until he was around 12. She remembers a little boy who possessed the sort of athletic gifts that simply cannot be manufactured, but whose character was every bit as striking as his talent. 'He was amazingly athletic,' she said. 'His footwork at a very young age was exceptional. He could focus, he was determined - all the good qualities you expect.' Contrary to the mythology that often grows around sporting stars, Fery was not the dominant child prodigy who towered above every rival. 'He wasn't the best in his age group,' Taylor says. 'But he was very close to the top.' Mr Goldstein is a former collegiate player for Stanford and went on to play tennis professionally What distinguished him was not overwhelming physical superiority but an unusual combination of competitiveness, imagination and confidence. 'He's a real performer,' she laughs. 'He likes to play in front of people. If I taught him on a front court and people walked past saying, 'He looks good,' I'd say, 'Go on then, show them this,' and he absolutely thrived on that. He loved showing people that he was a good player.' Those who have watched Fery's journey say his game has always reflected his personality. He is not simply a power player - instead he also possessed exceptional movement, a brilliant backhand, touch around the net and the willingness to always try something different. 'He always wanted to do something else,' Taylor recalled. 'You'd hit a few groundstrokes and he'd say: 'OK, now I want to volley.' That imagination has become one of his greatest weapons on grass. Jamie Delgado, the British coach who works with Fery's Wimbledon victim Dimitrov, was not surprised by the level Fery produced. 'I've always seen him as confident,' Delgado said. 'I've always seen him as someone that knows he's a gifted player.' 'You can kind of get a sense for players sometimes. I've always had that feeling with him.' Perhaps the biggest difference between Fery and many talented young players is the work he has put into the mental side of tennis. For Goldstein, the qualities that define Fery have always extended well beyond forehands and backhands. 'As great a tennis player as he is, he's a better human being,' he says. 'He's an individual with interests and curiosity about the world beyond the tennis court. 'He has an incredible passion for tennis and he's an incredible athlete, but he's also someone who develops relationships, who thinks differently and who genuinely wants to learn.' The wild card star of this summer's tournament had a tennis upbringing - he is pictured here competing at the 2020 French Open boy's singles event at Roland Garros in Paris That intellectual curiosity manifested itself in ways Goldstein had rarely encountered during decades of coaching elite players. Fery worked on breathing techniques to remain calm under pressure, studied performance psychology and even experimented with eyesight training, constantly searching for marginal gains that might improve his performance. 'He recognised how important those skills were and honed them much the same way he'd hone a forehand,' Goldstein says. 'He was innovative, an independent thinker and very self-confident, but I don't want that mistaken for arrogance because he's also extraordinarily humble.' That combination of inner belief and outward humility has perhaps never been more evident than during his astonishing Wimbledon run. Goldstein admits that what impressed him most was not the quality of Fery's tennis but the serenity with which he handled an occasion that would overwhelm most players. 'The adjectives that come to mind are poise and composure,' he says. 'To walk on to Centre Court for the first time, with tens of thousands watching, millions more on television, carrying the responsibility of being the last British man left in the tournament, and then execute the way he did was extraordinary. 'We use words like exceptional too often in sport, but what he did genuinely deserved them.' At Stanford, Fery became one of the leading college players in America, rising to No 1 nationally and earning the respect of teammates and coaches alike Perhaps Goldstein's favourite memory has nothing to do with victories at all. After Fery's final match for Stanford, a defeat to the future world top-10 player Ben Shelton, the pair went for dinner together. Rather than dwelling on the disappointment, they found themselves reflecting on everything the previous two years had meant, and Goldstein remembers being struck by the gratitude and emotional maturity of a player who was barely into his twenties. It felt, he says, less like a conversation between coach and student than between equals, a moment that confirmed his belief that Fery possessed qualities that would serve him long after any particular result had faded into memory. Taylor experienced a similar sense of pride as she watched him stride towards Centre Court this week. She had found herself in the Royal Box, as her husband Roger Taylor is also tennis royalty after he was the gentlemen's singles semi-finalist in 1967, 1970 and 1973. Taylor embraced her former pupil before he walked out to face Dimitrov and then watched as Federer congratulated him after the biggest victory of his career. She believes there is far more to come because the fearless little boy who loved performing on the front courts has never disappeared; he has simply found a much bigger stage on which to perform. Your browser does not support iframes.