Alexander Zverev will play for another major trophy, this time in the Wimbledon final, a month after winning his first Grand Slam title at the French Open. Zverev ended the “Ferytale” run of British wild card Arthur Fery with an overpowering 7-6 (0), 6-2, 6-4 victory in the semifinals at the All England Club on Friday.
“This Grand Slam has always been the one that I struggled with the most and all of a sudden I’m in the final of Wimbledon,” the 29-year-old German said. “We got one more match to go on Sunday and that’s what the focus is on.”
Zverev, whose breakthrough at Roland Garros came in his fourth Grand Slam final, is attempting to become the first man in the professional era (since 1968) to win his second title at the next event immediately after his first major trophy.
In Sunday’s final, Zverev will meet either defending champion Jannik Sinner or seven-time Wimbledon winner Novak Djokovic, who were up next on Centre Court.
Djokovic beat Sinner in their last meeting in five sets in the Australian Open semifinals.
“It’s not going to be easy no matter who it is against,” Zverev said. “But I have to trust myself and I have to believe that I can win and that’s what I’m going to do.”
The 114th-ranked Fery, who grew up five minutes from the All England Club and played at Stanford University, was attempting to become the first wild card to reach the final since Goran Ivanisevic won Wimbledon in 2001.
“I think this was just the beginning of his career and I really think that he’s going to do amazing things in this sport,” Zverev said of Fery.
It was another warm day in southwest London, with the temperature rising to about 85 degrees Fahrenheit (29 Celsius). It was also breezy and a bit cloudier than in recent days.
Zverev did well not to let the pro-Fery crowd get behind the local player too much and a double fault from Fery early in the first-set tiebreaker put Zverev in control.
The 6-foot-6 (1.98-meter) Zverev was also able to dominate with his serve, which he cranked up to 139 mph (224 kph).
The 5-foot-9 (1.75-meter) Fery, by comparison, was serving closer to 120 mph (193 kph).
Fery had great support
The British spectators did their best to encourage Fery early on, chanting his name between points as they sipped their Pimm’s under their wide-brimmed hats.
At one point early on, chair umpire Marijana Veljovic had to tell the crowd to pipe down.
“Ladies and gentlemen: Do not react, if possible, until the end of the point,” Veljovic said, before adding later in the first set: “Once again, do not react during the rally. That’s very disturbing for both players,” which was met with a round of applause.
When it was over, Fery walked off to a standing ovation and applauded the crowd in return.
“I know that 99.99% of the stadium was wanting Arthur to win. But it was still such an incredible atmosphere. It was such a fair crowd as well,” Zverev said. “A lot of crowds in the world can take an example of this crowd. It’s one of the best crowds to play tennis in front of.”
Zverev had previously never been past the fourth round at Wimbledon.
Now he’s the first German man to reach the final of the grass-court Grand Slam since Boris Becker lost to Pete Sampras in 1995.
The last German man to win Wimbledon was Michael Stich, who beat Becker in the 1991 final.
Becker, the three-time Wimbledon champion, wished Zverev “congratulations” in German on X: tweeting “Glückwunsch Sascha !!!,” using the player’s nickname.
The women’s final on Saturday features two Czech players, Karolina Muchova against Linda Noskova.
