British wildcard Arthur Fery has undergone a medical procedure during his remarkable Wimbledon campaign, having his blood vessels cauterised to address persistent nosebleeds. The world No. 114, who has suffered from nosebleeds mid-match throughout the tournament, opted for the procedure before his Centre Court debut in the semi-finals against French Open champion Alexander Zverev.
Nosebleed issues and procedure
Fery required medical attention three times for nosebleeds during his five-set comeback victory against Zizou Bergs, including while serving to stay in the match. However, he did not bleed during his subsequent wins over Grigor Dimitrov in a five-hour five-setter or against No. 9 seed Flavio Cobolli in the quarter-finals.
Speaking after his straight-sets win over Cobolli, Fery revealed: "I had a little procedure four days ago here on it. That seemed to help. Just getting the blood vessels cauterised in the nose. A small thing. Nothing major. Didn't hurt." He also noted that avoiding wiping his nose with a towel helped: "I've also tried to avoid wiping with a towel straight on the nose. I think that was also not helping, so just a combination of things, just a bit of luck as well."
Semi-final challenge against Zverev
With the nosebleed concerns behind him, the 23-year-old faces his toughest test yet in Alexander Zverev, the No. 2 seed and French Open champion. Standing 6ft 6in, Zverev towers nine inches above Fery, but the Briton remains confident. "Playing big servers is something I've really improved on, accepting sometimes getting aced a lot, and having more pressure on my service games. I'm a great returner, I think. Just try to apply pressure that way," Fery said.
Zverev has taken note of Fery's performances, dating back to the Australian Open where Fery beat Cobolli as a qualifier. "The first time I watched him play was actually in Australia. He beat Cobolli in the first round. I watched that match," Zverev said. "I was very impressed back then already. He has a very clean technique and very clean groundstrokes. I thought he was a very good tennis player already back then. Of course, it's maybe a surprise a little bit that he's in the semifinals. But I think he deserves it. The wins that he had, the way he fought back in a couple of those matches, is great to see. It's a great story."
