Alexander Zverev reached his first Wimbledon final on Friday, beating British wild card Arthur Fery in straight sets on Centre Court in a result that also returns him to world No. 2 and keeps alive a bid for back-to-back Grand Slam titles.
The match. Zverev won 7-6(0), 6-2, 6-4 in two hours and 14 minutes. Fery, roared on by the home crowd, matched him early and broke back to force a first-set tiebreak, but the German swept the breaker without conceding a point and never trailed again. He broke twice in the second set and once in the third, leaning on a serve that produced nine aces and a steady supply of cheap points. Fery, the story of the fortnight as a wild-card semifinalist, saw his run end there.
Finals at all four. The win completed a milestone that had eluded Zverev at the grass-court major. With a first Wimbledon final, he has now reached the title match at all four Grand Slams. By one count he became the fourth active man to do so, after Novak Djokovic, Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz, and the first German to reach finals at all four majors.
Back to No. 2. The run also reshapes the top of the rankings. When the ATP standings update on Monday, Zverev will rise to world No. 2, overtaking Alcaraz, who has not played since April because of a wrist injury and missed both Roland Garros and Wimbledon. Zverev moves to 8,480 points against Alcaraz’s 8,160, per the ATP, dropping the Spaniard to No. 3.
A second major in sight. Zverev arrives in the final three weeks after winning his maiden Grand Slam title at Roland Garros. A win on Sunday would make him the seventh man to claim the Roland Garros–Wimbledon double in a single year, a group that includes Rod Laver, Björn Borg, Rafael Nadal, Roger Federer, Djokovic and Alcaraz.
The tactical shift. For a player long criticized for passivity on the biggest stages, the performance stood out for its aggression. Zverev was the clear initiator throughout, out-hitting Fery 44 winners to 16 by one match tally while keeping his error count only marginally higher — a profile closer to his best hard-court tennis than to a surface he has called his worst. The breakthrough in Paris appears to have loosened his game at the majors that once frustrated him.
Asked which semifinalist he would prefer to face, Zverev joked, “I hope I can play a junior, that would be great.”
He will instead meet the winner of Sinner and Djokovic in Sunday’s final, a clear step up from anything he faced this fortnight. Either way, Zverev has reached ground at Wimbledon he had never touched — and will leave southwest London ranked higher than when he arrived.
