Arthur Fery was left irritated by what happened to him ahead of his match with Karen Khachanov at the Shanghai Masters.
Fery has enjoyed the best season of his career in 2026, having reached the semi-finals of Wimbledon and his first ATP final in Winston-Salem.
This has enabled Fery to shoot up the rankings to become both a top 40 player and the British number one.
With Fery’s ranking rise in recent months, it has enabled him to get into more tournaments including the Shanghai Masters, where he made his debut this year, but he was not entirely happy with how his first appearance at the tournament went.
Arthur Fery was annoyed after being left waiting by Karen Khachanov in Shanghai
Fery appeared on the latest edition of The Changeover Podcast, where he spoke about his rise up the rankings, which all started when he reached the Wimbledon semi-finals as a wildcard.
The Briton’s run came to an end against Alexander Zverev, who is confirmed to become world number one this year, as Fery explained what he thinks is the best way to try and beat the German, despite being unable to do so himself.
“I think if you really push him to tie-breaks and pressure situations, that’s maybe when he decelerates a little bit on the forehand, doesn’t go as big, makes a few mistakes, makes a few double faults, but I never really got to that point,” said Fery.
“Like it’s really tough to get to that point against him, because when he swings freely, even on the forehand it’s insane, it’s winners and really tough to get games on the board. But yeah, if you push him that far then maybe you get a chance.”
Fery added when asked if he thinks Zverev’s forehand is a weakness, “It’s probably different periods of the year and surfaces maybe, he’d just won the French Open, his confidence is sky high. But no, it’s definitely still the side that can break down a bit more, you’ve just got to push him hard to get it to break down.”
Where will Arthur Fery be ranked at the end of the year?
He’s up 78 places from 114th!
Zverev has become renowned for being late to both matches and press conferences on the ATP Tour, and Fery was asked if this was also the case for their Wimbledon semi-final.
“He is always late, but no I don’t think he made me wait that much,” replied Fery. “It’s one of those where you get used to it a little bit. In those big tournaments, you know they call your match and you think that you have three minutes to get up there to get ready, but actually everyone takes like 10 minutes so you have way more time than you think. But no I didn’t wait for him too much, which was nice.”
However, when continuing to speak about timekeeping, Fery revealed that he actually was left annoyed after Khachanov was late for their match recently at the Shanghai Masters.
“I actually complained,” admitted Fery. “I never complain about this stuff, but in Shanghai I was really p***** because the guy told me a specific time to be at the front by the buggies and I was there on time, and I waited like six minutes before Khachanov turned up so my warm-up is basically useless by the time you get the buggy on to the court it’s been like 10/15 minute since we’ve warmed up…So it is a little bit of weird rule.”
Fery will be hoping that there is no lateness for his next match at the Vienna Open, where he will play either Frances Tiafoe or Lorenzo Musetti.
