Wimbledon Fery Tale Features a Wild Card and a Silver Spoon

Arthur Fery continued his surprise run to the Wimbledon men’s semifinal on Wednesday with a 6-4, 7-6, 6-0 win over No. 9 seeded Flavio Cobolli. The 23-year-old Fery, who moved from France to England when he was one month old, is ranked No. 114 in the world and had a career record of 6-8 at the ATP level prior to this tournament. It feels practically destined that Fery would succeed at Wimbledon. He grew up a few minutes from the grounds of The Championships and trained as a junior at the National Tennis Centre in Roehampton, England, where Wimbledon’s qualifiers are held. His mother is a former professional tennis player and a member of the All England Club. Fery has already earned approximately $1.2 million for reaching the semis at Wimbledon, more than doubling his career total of $884,000 in prize money earnings prior to last week. It’s not like his family is new to money, however, or to success in sports. Fery’s father, Loic Fery, is a hedge fund manager estimated to be worth more than $300 million, and he is the president of Ligue 1 soccer club FC Lorient, which sold to billionaire and Vegas Golden Knights owner Bill Foley earlier this year. Fery may not have even competed at Wimbledon this year had he not received a wild card into the event. Only the top 104 players in the world automatically qualify for Grand Slam singles draws. Players whose ranking falls below that threshold but within the top 250 or so can compete in the qualifying draw the week before and try to earn a spot in the main draw by winning three consecutive qualifying matches. The only other way to play is via a wild card. Each of pro tennis’ four majors—the U.S. Open, Australian Open, French Open and Wimbledon—awards wild cards to eight men and eight women who otherwise would not have qualified. The tournament organizers can determine who gets those wild cards, but at all four, the majority of spots are typically given to players from the host country. This year, six of the eight men and six of the eight women who received wild cards at Wimbledon were British. Serena Williams was one of the other women who received a wild card. Young tennis players from Australia, France, the United Kingdom or the United States therefore carry a massive advantage when it comes to playing in Slams. A Brit can uniquely gain experience on the Wimbledon grass before their ranking would allow them to do so. Fery has played in three Wimbledons prior to this year as a wild card, never advancing past the second round, but earning a combined total of $281,000 in prize money, 32% of his total career earnings. Typically, wild cards who have advanced deep in majors have been former elite players making a comeback or experiencing a sudden return to form. Former champion Kim Clijsters won the 2009 U.S. Open as a wild card following a two-year hiatus from the sport, and then Justine Henin made the 2010 Australian Open final under similar circumstances. Otherwise, wild cards at Grand Slams are largely unsuccessful on the court. Since 2000, only six out of 848 men who entered as a wild card (0.7%) have made the quarterfinals and only two (0.2%) made the semis. The first was Goran Ivanišević, who won Wimbledon in 2001 despite dropping out of the top 100 in the rankings following three final appearances in the 1990s. Fery is just the second to accomplish the feat.