As British tennis searches for its next winner of the most prestigious crown in the sport, an exciting young talent has emerged born only a short distance from the famous grass courts of SW19. Eighteen year-old Arthur Fery lives in Wimbledon with his parents and younger brother and sister. He has recently completed his A-levels at Kings College and will head to California later this month to enrol in the esteemed tennis programme at the University of Stanford. Many high profile players have followed this route over the years, including John McEnroe.
Arthur’s childhood was a little out of the ordinary in that his parents are French but moved to England 20 years ago. This has enabled Arthur to grow up bilingual but he maintains his loyalty lies firmly with GB and one day hopes to appear in front of the Centre Court crowd.
Arthur has already caught the eye of some high profile tennis stars and earlier this month was practising with Dan Evans and Andy Murray. Perhaps topping that was in November last year when Arthur was invited to the O2 Arena in London as a sparring partner for the world’s best players – including World No1 Novak Djokovic! ‘It was a fantastic experience; I played a lot with them. They were pretty friendly. Medvedev laughs and jokes a lot of the time around the court, Djokovic was very concentrated. What you notice most is their focus when they are hitting, they get annoyed with themselves for making the slightest mistake, it’s that sense of perfectionism.’
Time will tell if Arthur can fulfil his potential and realise his dream of one day playing in a Grand Slam tournament but in the meantime we wish him the very best in his development at Stanford.