This place has always been home for Arthur Fery. He grew up a mile away from the Wimbledon grounds and went to school nearby. His mother, a former tennis player, is a member here. As a child he would spend his summers strolling the grounds: watching and wishing, inhaling this rarefied air, dreaming of the day when everyone here knew his name.
On a sun-baked Saturday evening, that moment finally arrived. The queues for seats stretched around the block and barely moved all day. Up in the high-rise flats overlooking court 18, residents leaned over balconies and pressed faces up against windows. This year’s Wimbledon finally has a homegrown hero to exalt, and it came after the longest match of the tournament so far: a five-set comeback that stretched credulity and announced the 23-year-old world No 114 as the next big star of British tennis.
