Arthur Fery becomes British No.1 with ATP top 40 debut
• 2 minute read
24-year-old Arthur Fery has become British No.1 for the first time in his career, following his unforgettable run to the Wimbledon semi-final.
Fery becomes the 20th British man to reach the top of the domestic rankings since 1973, having overtaken Cam Norrie, who has held the position since March 2026.
The rising star's latest milestone comes following a consistent year on the ATP Challenger and ATP Tour, which culminated in an historic run to the final four at Wimbledon.
It's an honour for me to be No.1 in Great Britain. Breaking top 100 was a big milestone for me, which was after my third round here (Wimbledon) - now to be top 40 is incredible.
Fery rewrote history by becoming the first wild card to reach a Grand Slam semi-final in 25 years.
His run to the final four led him to surge up the ATP rankings, going on to make ATP top 40 debut with a career-high ranking of world No.36. He arrived at SW19 ranked outside the top 100 at what was then a career-best ranking of 114.
Fery is now one of three British men to be ranked inside the top 100 - joining British No.2 Norrie and Jan Choinski, who just recently moved into the top end of the rankings.
As a young player, Fery competed regularly on the World Tennis Junior Tour and was supported on official LTA international competitions to various events such as the U14 Winter Cup, the Paul Hutchins Trophy, the U18 European Championships and junior Grand Slams.
He went on to play in the NCAA for Stanford University, where he ranked at No.1 nationally in singles before joining the professional Tour.
The 24-year-old broke onto the scene in 2025 with a first main draw win at Wimbledon against 20th seed Alexei Popyrin before picking up his first ATP Challenger title shortly after in Barranquilla. The title remains the biggest of his career so far.
Fery kicked off 2026 as world No.185, but a season filled with career firsts has helped him make a steady ascent through the rankings.
The Brit picked up his first Australian Open main draw win in January, making it through qualifying before knocking out 20th seed Flavio Cobolli. Fery then made his Masters 1000 debut when he qualified for the Miami Open later in the year.
This success continued as Fery kicked off his grass court season with a semi-final run at the Lexus Birmingham Open before reaching his first ATP 500 quarter-final at the HSBC Championships.
The pinnacle of his season came at Wimbledon where Fery – who is supported by the LTA’s Pro Scholarship Programme presented by Lexus - was the last Brit standing in the singles competition.
He reached the semi-finals, clocking in wins against former Birmingham champion Otto Virtanen, Lexus Nottingham Open titleholder Zizou Bergs, former world No.3 Grigor Dimitrov and ninth seed Cobolli before bowing out to second seed Alexander Zverev in the last four.
Men's British No.1’s since 1973
- Roger Taylor
- Mark Cox
- Buster Mottram
- Colin Dowdeswell
- John Lloyd
- Andrew Castle
- Steve Shaw
- Jeremy Bates
- Neil Broad
- Chris Bailey
- Chris Wilkinson
- Mark Petchey
- Greg Rusedski
- Tim Henman
- Andy Murray
- Kyle Edmund
- Dan Evans
- Cam Norrie
- Jack Draper
Fery will now turn his attention to the north American swing where he’ll have direct entry into the US Open as well as some of the big warm-up tournaments, including Washington, and the ATP Masters 1000 tournaments in Canada and Cincinnati. If the Brit continues this form, there will no doubt be more success lying ahead.
