Tim Henman shared Arthur Fery's frustrations after the British wildcard fumed at a controversial decision during his Wimbledon semi-final defeat to Alexander Zverev. Fery, 24, enjoyed a life-changing run at Wimbledon, becoming just the fifth British home player in the open era to make the last four at the All England Club. Ranked 114th in the world before the tournament, he is now projected to break into the top 40.
Fery's fury over let call
The Brit hoped to reach Sunday's final but saw his fairy tale run end in straight sets to second seed Zverev. Fery faced an uphill battle against the reigning French Open champion and fell behind early, broken in his second service game to trail 3-1 in the first set. Two points later, he erupted when Zverev's serve out wide was not called a let, despite Fery insisting the ball clipped the net.
'The net, everyone heard that,' Fery fumed at chair umpire Marijana Veljovic. 'You can hear it from the back row over there.' Veljovic repeatedly denied hearing the clip, and Fery added: 'I mean this one was even more obvious than the first one, even more.'
Henman: 'Mad' no technology exists
Speaking on commentary, former British No.1 Henman called the situation 'mad' given the wealth of technology available. 'It's mad with all the technology we have, the electronic line calling. There was a let device but it didn't work,' Henman said. 'You'd think that someone would come up with a better piece of technology but in the Slams there hasn't been a let call device for quite some time. It's just the umpire that calls it – or doesn't call it as the case may be.'
Henman explained that the previous technology was removed years ago due to reliability issues. 'It was a couple of years ago. There were a lot of times when people had to come onto the court to try and fix it. It wasn't working properly. I think this net is a little harder to call because it's a fabric. The other nets at the other slams are plastic and make a louder noise when the ball clips the top of the net.'
Second incident fuels frustration
Remarkably, another suspected let occurred in the second set, with Fery throwing his arms in the air when it was not called. Veljovic again stood firm: 'You think it's a let, but actually no it's not, because the microphone is very loud, and sometimes even the camera can be heard, so this is what you heard, I'm sure of it. This did not touch the net.' Fery retorted: 'Then we're hearing it so loud and it's still a problem.'
Fery's hopes faded as he lost 7-6, 6-2, 6-4 in just over two hours. Zverev will face either Novak Djokovic or Jannik Sinner in Sunday's final.
