Sawt Falasteen - Fery expects to thrive in spotlight after Wimbledon fairytale

Just two weeks ago, Fery arrived at Wimbledon as an unknown ranked 114th in the world with so little hope of winning the tournament that he had booked a holiday to Greece for the latter stages.

But Fery's life changed forever in the intervening 10 days as he became the first wildcard to reach the Wimbledon men's semi-finals since Goran Ivanisevic won the title 25 years ago.

The 23-year-old had won just two matches at Grand Slams prior to his astonishing surge into the last four at the All England Club.

Fery's dream of becoming the first British man to win Wimbledon since Andy Murray a decade ago came to a painful end with a 7-6 (7/0), 6-2, 6-4 defeat against Alexander Zverev on Centre Court on Friday.

But Fery had no reason to be downhearted about a loss to the red-hot German second seed, who has won his last 13 Grand Slam matches, including winning his first major title at the French Open in June.

"I'm proud of how I handled the progression of the tournament and how I kept going in every match," he said.

"Just kept fighting, came back to the court every time and gave my best, never letting go and really pushing myself to the limit.

"It might have been just a step too far today. The opponent was a step up again."

Fery will rise to 36th in the ATP rankings next week, guaranteeing him entry into the sport's biggest events, instead of having to rely on wildcards or qualifiers to make the main draw.

With that comes greater pressure on a man who is now the face of British tennis -- only a fortnight after he could have walked down Wimbledon high street without eliciting a second glance.

"It's going to change things, for sure. I'm going to be able to play tour events at least for a full year, hopefully for more," he said.

"It's going to be interesting to see how I deal with that change and everything that that brings in terms of expectations from myself, from the public, from everyone.

"Already looking forward to that. It's going to be a challenge to deal with all of that, but I'm conscious of it already and that's the first step."

- 'Recharge the batteries' -

Fery's tenacity and incredible work-rate inspired a Wimbledon story for the ages, as he stunned former world number three Grigor Dimitrov and French Open finalist Flavio Cobolli en route to the last four.

Zverev was too powerful and focused for Fery to reach what would have been his maiden Grand Slam final on his 24th birthday on Sunday.

Instead, Fery can take a well-earned break and think about taking the holiday he should have already been on.

"I was meant to be coming back from holiday today. That's obviously changed!" he said.

"But yeah, I definitely need some time off, process everything that's happened these past two weeks.

"Right now mentally, physically tired of the tournament. Going to make sure I take enough time to recharge the batteries, and then just go again.

"I was meant to be going to Greece with some friends. We'll see if that's still in the cards."

Fery has played only one Masters 1000 event, losing in the first round in Miami this year.

But now he can start to plan his schedule for trips to some of the more high-profile stops on the ATP Tour, including the US Open in New York in August.

"I feel like I've showcased it here, but also in the past year since I came back from injury, I've played really high-level tennis," he said.

E.Qaddoumi--SF-PST