Arthur Fery admits watching the US Open used to be ‘a little painful’ – as British No1 prepares for his main draw debut after meteoric Wimbledon rise
What a difference a year makes. This week, 12 months ago, British No1 Arthur Fery was decompressing at home after winning a Challenger event, the level one step below the elite ATP tour, in Barranquilla, Colombia.
He was preparing for another Challenger, held the following week in the sleepy French Riviera town of Cassis. Then ranked the mid-300s, he couldn’t remember if he had even watched the US Open. If he did, it wasn’t a comfortable experience.
‘It’s a little bit painful seeing all the guys your age who you were playing with in juniors playing the US Open, and you’re playing Challengers, or you’re injured,’ Fery admitted. ‘It’s not really jealousy, because you know that they deserved it, and you haven’t, because you’re at a lower ranking. But your competitive side wants to be there as well.
‘During my injury (two years ago), I transitioned to being stuck on that kind of sentiment to fully letting go at some point, and being like, “this is what it is”. I’ve dropped in the rankings, but I know why.’
Two years later, and the 24-year-old was a hair-breadth from a seeding in Flushing Meadows, and comes into his first-round meeting with world No14 Lorenzo Musetti on Tuesday fresh from a tour-level final at last weekend’s Winston-Salem Open.
‘I can see now how that was the case a little bit,’ Fery added, when asked if his run in North Carolina had shown those who wondered if his Wimbledon streak had been a lightning-strike. ‘It’s nice, but in the moment or beforehand, not so much. I didn’t feel like I had to prove anything to anyone.
Arthur Fery used to find it almost painful to watch his peers at Grand Slams – now, he has made the main draw for the US Open
‘I didn’t put my expectations too high after Wimbledon. I was just giving myself time to grow into the player that I am, and the status that I now I have, being top 40 and playing these tournaments. I think that helped with playing well last week and making the final.
‘Now in hindsight, I can see how there were obviously people who were waiting to see how I was going to do and if it was a one-off or a fluke whatever. But no, I think my expectations stay the same, and of myself, and just move forward and do the best I can.’
Fery enjoyed 12 tennis-free days after his semi-final in SW19 in July, enjoying holidays in Spain with friends and France, the country of his birth, before returning to the practice courts.
Since rocketing up the rankings with his Wimbledon run, attention has been paid to managing his new reality of tour-level tournaments and Grand Slam main draw berths. Modestly, life has changed ‘a little bit’.
‘Because of the tournaments I’m playing, because of the people I’m around, the players I’m around,’ he conceded. ‘But I’m trying not to change my way of approaching business.’
‘I feel like I’m in the prime of my career,’ he added. ‘I feel good in my body. I’m playing the best tournaments in the world.’
Fery’s impact on his British cohort, inspired by the rapid change of circumstance his Wimbledon wins afforded him, is already filtering through in New York. After Toby Samuel booked his spot in the second round on Sunday, he was joined by fellow qualifier Harriet Dart, after a gutsy three-set win against home favourite Peyton Stearns.
The world No131 revealed that she had been almost ‘surprised’ to have beaten Stearns, who ranked 76 places on the heels of their rain-delayed, two-day, 3-6, 6-3, 6-2 battle. Dart did so with support in the stands from her famous coach, 2013 Wimbledon champion Marion Bartoli.
Jacob Fearnley and Harry Wendelken, who also qualified to play in the Big Apple, are in the thick of clashes against Martin Landaluce and Luciano Darderi respectively, with Jan Choinski and Francesca Jones, the final first-round British prospects, in action on Tuesday.
