Paul Goldstein, the former coach of British wildcard Arthur Fery, flew 5,400 miles from California overnight to watch his former prodigy play in the Wimbledon quarter-finals. Goldstein landed at Heathrow at 7am on Wednesday after a last-minute flight, having secured a ticket on Centre Court thanks to Fery's team.
Goldstein's journey and confidence in Fery
Goldstein, a former world number 58, coached Fery for three years during his scholarship at Stanford University. He said his “heart is just bursting” for his “wonderful” former student, who is bidding to become only the second wildcard to reach the Wimbledon semi-finals. “I always had a tremendous amount of confidence in Arthur,” Goldstein told the Express. “I don’t know if anyone can predict you’re going to get all the way to the quarter-finals of a Grand Slam, but I always thought he was a world-class player who was capable of doing exactly what he’s doing now.”
Fery's historic run at Wimbledon
Fery, 23, is the first British wildcard to reach the quarter-finals of a Grand Slam. Entering the tournament ranked 114th in the world, he is the lowest-ranked player to reach the men's last eight at Wimbledon in 12 years. Growing up minutes away from the All England Club, Fery has completed a series of stunning comebacks to reach this stage. On Monday, he defeated former semi-finalist and world number three Grigor Dimitrov 7-5 3-6 4-6 6-4 7-6 (10/7), defying 500-1 odds. After the match, he described the feeling as an “unbelievable amount of emotion”.
Upcoming match against Flavio Cobolli
Fery faces ninth-seed Flavio Cobolli, who was the runner-up at Roland Garros. Fery previously beat Cobolli in the Australian Open first round. Goldstein backed his former star student to rise to the occasion, cheered on by a raucous Centre Court crowd. “I’m sure Arthur would be the first one to tell you he’s taking one match at a time,” Goldstein said. “I feel like he’s got a really good shot at the match against Cobolli. It’s kind of incredible to think he’s in the quarter-finals of a Grand Slam for the first time, and he’s playing a guy he has a winning record against. He’s going to go out there knowing that this is a guy that he’s beaten before and so I think he’ll have the belief he can do it again, and I give him a really good crack at winning today.”
