Under the gaze of his country’s Queen, the dancing feet of the irrepressible and seemingly unstoppable Arthur Fery carried him within two matches of a coronation of his own.The 23-year-old – who stands at 5ft 9in and plays with the heart of a giant – beat No9 seed Flavio Cobolli in straight sets to become the first wildcard to reach the Wimbledon semi-finals since Goran Ivanisevic 25 years ago.Two more wins and he will celebrate his 24th birthday on Sunday with the Wimbledon title. First, he must beat French Open champion Alexander Zverev tomorrow/on Friday. Then Jannik Sinner or Novak Djokovic in the final. The four semi-finalists are the No1 and No2 seeds, the best player of all time, and the world No114. Put like that it seems preposterous; watch this wonderful athlete play tennis and it all makes perfect sense.‘That last game I felt emotions I have never felt before in my life,’ said Fery, who after this event will overtake Cam Norrie as the British No1. ‘It seems to get better and better every match. I can’t believe it. I’ve been doing a great job over the last 10 days so I’ll just keep going and see where it’s going to take me.’Fery’s run to this stage had been hugely impressive but there were caveats. He had not played anyone inside the world’s top 35; his third-round opponent Zizou Bergs choked spectacularly; in the fourth he met Grigor Dimitrov, a fabulous player but one who had won only six matches in 2026 before this event.No caveats this time: Fery faced the No9 seed, a French Open finalist last month, and made him look ordinary. What a day this was and what an occasion awaits tomorrow/on Friday, as Fery becomes the fifth British man in the Open Era to make the last four here, joining Roger Taylor, Tim Henman, Andy Murray and Norrie. Arthur Fery falls to the floor as he celebrates winning match point to see off Flavio Cobolli He raised a fist to the crowd to salute his victory as the British wildcard reached the semi-finalsWith respect to Norrie, who made the semis in 2022, we have not seen grass-court tennis like this from a British player since Murray’s heyday.In the relentlessness of his double-handed backhand, the aggression of his return, the subtlety of his hand skills and the sophistication of his tactics, Fery looked like the great Scot with six inches sawn off and a handful of Xanax in his system.For while Murray played with sound and fury, Fery operates with utter tranquility as the storm of national excitement rages around him.Just seconds before he and Cobolli were about to walk on court, Queen Camilla appeared to wish them luck. It was a symbol of the scale of the occasion; an added dose of nerves.And yet Fery reacted as if an old friend had popped by unannounced. ‘You snuck up on me there,’ he said, then shouldered his bag, strode on to Centre Court and played the match of his life.There is a school of thought that grass is losing its uniqueness as a surface – that players can just show up and blaze away as they do on hard or clay. Fery has been a wonderful antidote to that notion this fortnight and he made Cobolli – a player who took Djokovic to four tough sets in the quarters here last year – look as if he had never played a match on grass in his life.Fery’s slices off both forehand and backhand, his drop shots and his delicately crafted volleys left Cobolli utterly discombobulated. It was as if the Italian, with his modern, muscled topspin forehand, had been dragged back to the era when men played here in starched shirts and flannels.But for all Fery’s hand skills, what has really set him apart this fortnight are his feet. He moves so beautifully on a grass court, shimmering over its surface like a bird skimming over water. Fery has now won five matches this fortnight, having won just one match at Wimbledon previouslyFery made a tranquil start and the first nine games passed without threat of a break. Then the Centre Court crowd came to his aid in peculiarly Wimbledon fashion.At 4-5, Cobolli threw up the ball to serve but had to bail out of his action as the pop of a champagne cork split the silence. Umpire Arnaud Gabas told the crowd: ‘Ladies and gentlemen, please enjoy your drinks but wait until the end of the point before opening a bottle’ – a ticking off that was the Wimbledon equivalent of firing tear gas at hooligans.All very silly but it seemed to affect Cobolli’s rhythm, for in the three points that followed he coughed up two unforced errors, a double fault and thus the opening set.They traded breaks early in the second and we found ourselves in a tiebreak. Fery took it 7-4 and has now won all five of his tiebreaks this fortnight – he is at his very best in the biggest moments.If one looked at these players’ rankings – No10 in the world vs No114 – the scoreline was absurd. If you looked at the respective quality of their tennis it made perfect sense.One of the advantages of being a bolter at a Grand Slam is the field does not have much of an idea how to play you. Cobolli looked like he did not know whether he was trying to blast Fery off court or grind him down.Still, surely we would see a response from the Grand Slam finalist in the third set? Instead, capitulation. Fery, playing with utter freedom, demolished him.Fery has now faced Cobolli twice without dropping a set, after a win in the first round of the Australian Open in January. That startling result was explained away by the fact Cobolli was suffering from diarrhoea. This time, it was the brilliance of Fery’s tennis which left the Italian sick to his stomach. Queen Camilla applauded in the Royal Box after Fery sealed victory to continue his fairytaleAs he served out the match to love, there was one point which summed Fery up. He charged forward and Cobolli whipped a backhand at him; the ball clipped the net tape and jagged in the opposite direction. With all his weight on his right foot Fery slipped, readjusted, danced to his left and hit the winner.You could go to the National Ballet and not see footwork like it. What a performance.