British wildcard Arthur Fery, who grew up in Wimbledon, continued his dream run at his home Grand Slam on Wednesday, upsetting No. 9 seed Flavio Cobolli of Italy 6-4, 7-6 (4), 6-0 on Centre Court to reach his first Grand Slam semifinal.

The 23-year-old, ranked No. 114 in the world, needed two hours and 14 minutes to eliminate Cobolli and become just the second wildcard to reach the Wimbledon men’s singles semifinals in the Open Era, joining Goran Ivanisevic in 2001.

Fery struck 27 winners, fired eight aces and committed just one double fault. He won 78 percent of his first-serve points and 65 percent of his second-serve points while keeping constant pressure on Cobolli’s serve.

Fery claimed the opening set with a late break before surviving a tight second-set tiebreak. From there, he dominated the final set, racing through it without dropping a game.

Credit: Getty

“I’ve always believed in myself and believed that I could, yeah, be a top player in the world. Yeah, obviously a semifinalist of Wimbledon is something else.”

Fery said he had tried to approach the tournament one match at a time.

“I’ve taken it match by match. I haven’t looked ahead. I’ve just played every match as it is. Yeah, here I am.”

Although playing in his first Grand Slam quarterfinal on Centre Court, Fery said he gradually settled into the occasion.

“I felt, as I said on court, not comfortable but a bit more confident in playing someone that I’d played before on a big stage.

“Yeah, even throughout the match I felt like it was very, very close. At times he was serving really well. But I felt like I had always a little bit, not of leeway, but a little bit of an edge. Yeah, managed to get through the second, which was huge, and then got through the third.”

The occasion became even more memorable before the match when Queen Camilla greeted both players.

“She came to say hello, she introduced herself to both me and Flavio. Yeah, it’s obviously an honor to play in front of her. Great to meet her. She had some really kind words to me at the end, as well. So yeah, playing in front of tennis legends and now the queen, so it’s special.”

Cobolli admitted he never found his rhythm against an opponent whose level surprised him.

“I don’t know what I have to say now. I mean, I’m really sad and disappointed with the match that I did few minutes ago.”

“I felt the game of Arthur was really good for him, the way that I played, and I think the perfect game for him. I think that I didn’t play good since the first point of the match. Maybe I was a little bit nervous. Maybe I felt the pressure that normally I don’t feel.”

Asked whether Fery had improved since defeating him at the Australian Open earlier this year, Cobolli said he had.

“I mean, also in Australia I felt that his level wasn’t from a guy that’s outside from top 100. Now I think is close to, I don’t know, 50.

“Really, today wasn’t my day. Maybe he play better than the other matches. I don’t know. I didn’t see the other one. But I felt that his level is really high today.”

Fery will next face No. 2 seed Alexander Zverev for a place in Sunday’s Wimbledon final.