LONDON, July 6 (Reuters) - Home hope Arthur Fery beat seasoned campaigner Grigor Dimitrov 7-5 3-6 4-6 6-4 7-6(7) at Wimbledon on Monday to match England's World Cup football team and reach the quarter-finals.
In a battle of wildcards, Fery, ranked 114 and the last Briton in the draw, kept a steady focus and composure to down the 35-year-old Bulgarian, 11 years his senior, in fading light after nearly four hours of absorbing tennis.
Dimitrov has reached three Grand Slam finals in a career that has never quite hit the heights because of injury. He was ranked number three in the world in 2017.
Fery, who turns 24 next Sunday, showed a steely resilience to counter the elegant shot-making of the 146-ranked Bulgarian and, spurred on by a partisan crowd, served two aces in the final set tie-break.
He will play ninth seed Flavio Cobolli in the quarter-finals after the Italian beat fifth-seeded Australian Alex de Minaur 7-5 7-6(4) 6-3.
Fery became the first wildcard since Nick Kyrgios in 2014 to reach the men's quarter-finals at Wimbledon and his victory came hours after England beat Mexico to earn a World Cup quarter-final spot.
"I couldn’t have imagined it," Fery said courtside. "A week ago I would have been happy to win a few matches here, and now winning four, being in the quarters, it’s a dream."
He took the match with a big serve that the tiring Dimitrov could only dump in the net and stood with his hands on his hips in disbelief enjoying the applause of the crowd.
PHENOMENAL SUPPORT
"The support was phenomenal," said Fery, who was born in France but grew up a stone's throw from the All England club.
"First time on this court, five sets against an absolute legend of the game, I grew up five minutes from here, I grew up coming to watch matches on this court," he said.
Roger Federer was in the Royal Box watching the match and Fery added: "We’ve got probably the greatest of all time watching over there.
"I saw him and now playing here in front of all you guys and winning and having the support is unbelievable.”
Fery, unflappable and undemonstrative on court, started the match in a businesslike fashion.
He took advantage of a Dimitrov serving wobble in the 11th game to break,
Dimitrov, once dubbed "Baby Fed" because his stylish game resembled Federer's, got his serve purring again in the second and looked to be in full command when he captured the third.
But Fery, who beat Belgian Zizou Bergs in an energy-sapping five-set match on Saturday, showed his determination to come out on top in a see-saw fourth set that included five breaks of serve.
"It’s been the story of the tournament for me, I was really close to losing in the last round and again today. A break down in the fourth, just trying to keep fighting, to have a good attitude and it paid off," he said.
(Reporting by Clare Lovell; editing by Clare Fallon)
