Wimbledon 2026 delivers dramatic runs from Fery, Djokovic and Gauff

Arthur Fery turned a No.114 wild-card entry into one of Wimbledon’s defining runs, going from a player who had never passed the second round at a Grand Slam to a men’s semi-finalist in the span of a fortnight. The 23-year-old Briton beat Grigor Dimitrov in a dramatic comeback on Centre Court, then became just the second wild card from any nation ever to reach the men’s semi-finals at Wimbledon.

The Championships unfolded over 14 days at the All England Lawn Tennis Club from Monday 29 June to Sunday 12 July, with the singles draws leading the way before the junior, wheelchair and invitation events took over later in the fortnight. On the grass, the best points were not only the cleanest struck, but the most adaptable, and Fery’s run captured that shift. He lasted 4 hours and 38 minutes against Zizou Bergs, then played 3 hours and 55 minutes against Dimitrov, matches that demanded patience, recovery and improvisation as much as raw pace.

Novak Djokovic supplied the tournament’s most familiar kind of authority, but even his passage carried the strain of the modern grass-court game. He reached his 17th Wimbledon quarter-final and his 66th Grand Slam quarter-final with a 7-6 (6), 6-3, 3-6, 6-3 win over Roman Safiullin, then went on to win the longest Wimbledon quarter-final in history. Djokovic beat Felix Auger-Aliassime 7-6 (10), 3-6, 6-3, 6-7 (4), 7-6 [10-4] in 5 hours and 15 minutes, a match that ended at 10:52 pm, eight minutes before the 11pm curfew.

Coco Gauff delivered a different kind of pressure test. The No.7 seed reached her first Wimbledon quarter-final by beating Belinda Bencic 4-6, 6-3, 6-4, finishing with only two minutes left before the curfew. She then advanced to the semi-finals before falling to Karolina Muchova in a match tie-break, one of the sharpest late-stage contests of the Championships.

Taken together, the runs from Fery, Djokovic and Gauff showed a Wimbledon shaped by power, recovery and tactical adjustment, where a home wild card, a long-standing champion and a rising American all found their way through the same punishing draw.