Arthur Fery reaches first ATP final in Winston-Salem
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Britain’s Arthur Fery is through to his first ATP Tour final after Australian James Duckworth retired in the second set of the semi-final at Winston-Salem.
Fery was leading 6-4, 1-2 when the world No.79 took a medical timeout before retiring from the match.
The 24-year-old is set to play third seed Igancio Buse for the chance to win his first career title on the ATP Tour.
"I'm really happy to be in the final," Fery said after his semi-final victory. "Not the way I wanted it to end at all. I hope James is going to rest up and get ready for next week, but very happy to be through.
"I played well in the first set. He was serving very well and tricky, but I managed to get the break, and from then on I thought I was playing good.
"It's going to be another tough match (the final). Ignacio is playing really well. He's a young guy who is breaking out, so it's going to be a great match.
“Definitely a good week for both of us, and I'm going to sit down with my coach and see what I can do to beat him."
Fery has picked up where her left off after his historic run at Wimbledon this summer, where he became only the second wild card entry to reach the semi-finals.
His run at SW19 catapulted him up the rankings inside the world’s top 40 and the former British No.1 is making good on his opportunities at the highest level.
Fery recently won his first ATP Masters 1000 match at the Cincinnati Open against Duckworth, before going on to reach the final at the ATP 250 in Winston-Salem.
This week he has claimed victories over Cruz Hewitt, Mees Rottgering, Aleksandr Kovacevic and Duckworth en-route to the final.
Fery is aiming to become the 14th man to lift an ATP Tour title when he takes on Buse later on Saturday evening. This will be a first meeting between the pair and it will be available to watch live on Sky Sports and NOW TV from 21:00.
Following the Winston-Salem final, Fery will head to the US Open where he’ll play 13th seed Lorenzo Musetti in his main draw debut.
He is the fourth British player since 2021 to reach a Grand Slam semi-final since 2021. All four, including Fery (Cam Norrie, Emma Raducanu and Jack Draper) have been supported by the LTA’s Pro Scholarship programme presented by Lexus, designed to help the very best players in Britain aged 16-24 reach the world’s top 100.
