For a few fleeting moments inside the vast John Cain Arena, it seemed like Arthur Fery had missed his opportunity. The 23-year-old’s attempts to serve out an excellent opening set at 5-4 up against the 20th seed at the Australian Open, Flavio Cobolli, had ended painfully. He quickly found himself serving, down 6-5, against one of the top players in the world, with his back to the wall.
These circumstances often do not favour the more inexperienced, lower-ranked players, but in one of the biggest matches of his career Fery created his own luck as he rose to the occasion and delivered the first great upset in Melbourne, dismantling Cobolli 7-6 (1), 6-4, 6-1 to reach the second round for the first time.
The victory marks Fery’s first win in a grand slam tournament outside Wimbledon. With a career‑high ranking of No 186, he had emerged from his first appearance as a direct qualifying entrant. Four matches in, he still has not dropped a set.
This result actually only equals his biggest win. By coincidence, last year at Wimbledon the Briton defeated the 20th seed, Alexei Popyrin, in four sets to secure his first grand slam main-draw victory. Fery’s three previous slam appearances were courtesy of Wimbledon main-draw wildcards between 2023 and 2025.
Standing at 1.75m (5ft 9in) Fery is one of the shortest players in the men’s draw, but the quality of his shotmaking makes up for it. He put Cobolli under pressure from the beginning with his smooth, tidy ground strokes, opening the court with excellent angles off both wings, looking to control the baseline by taking the ball early and constantly moving forward to the net, where he is extremely comfortable.
Throughout the match, Fery also showed his excellent defence, absorbing Cobolli’s first strike well, and he was impressively composed in the decisive moments.
“I just feel really confident,” Fery said. “I feel I don’t have to overplay with guys like that. With [Dino] Prizmic in qualies and Cobolli today, I felt like I was really fine to stick from the back with them. I feel like I’m able to reproduce that level.”
While Fery soared, his opponent was clearly not at full strength. Cobolli requested the trainer after the first game, revealing he had an upset stomach and diarrhoea.
After meekly conceding the tie-break, the Italian, who took Novak Djokovic to four sets at Wimbledon last year, tossed his racket to the side of the court and sprinted for the toilet. With the first set in hand, Fery relaxed and Cobolli offered minimal opposition until the end. This breakthrough has been a long time coming for Fery, whose development has spanned numerous nations. His parents hail from France, with his father, Loïc, an extremely wealthy French businessman and owner of the French Ligue 1 football club FC Lorient, and his mother, Olivia, a former professional tennis player. Fery was born in France but he grew up in Wimbledon.
Despite peaking at No 12 on the junior circuit, Fery felt he was not mature enough to immediately tackle the professional circuitand so, like an increasing number of British players, he decided to first embrace college tennis in the US. He competed at Stanford between 2020 and 2023 before joining the professional circuit full-time the summer after leaving college.
Since then, a number of physical issues have slowed his rise, particularly a bone bruise to his right arm that sidelined him for five months last year. It still is not completely resolved; he started his season under significant stress as he retired from his first tournament in Canberra because of his arm pain and he arrived in Melbourne uncertain about how it would react.
The confidence he has in his game and abilities is striking, but even he did not anticipate such an enormous breakthrough result. After Fery reached the main draw, his mother quickly jumped on a flight to join him, and she was courtside as her son took an enormous step forward in his blossoming career.
“When I won that last round, she asked me if she could come. I was like: ‘Of course, it would be nice to have you here.’ It’s obviously a long way, but at least I made it worth it. She can see at least two matches – hopefully more.”
Carlos Alcaraz, the top seed, began his quest to become the youngest owner of the career grand slam by moving confidently past Adam Walton of Australia 6-3, 7-6 (2), 6-2.
Since the 22-year-old opted not to compete in the first two weeks of the year, the victory also marked his first win of the season and his first match since parting ways with his coach Juan Carlos Ferrero.
“I think I hit the ball well,” the Spaniard said. “Could be better for sure. I am just happy because I think the things that I had to do, I did it pretty well in terms of myself behaving well, just [having] a good mindset all the time.”
