Britain’s Arthur Fery denied big stage for third-round Wimbledon clash

Arthur Fery has been denied a big show court as the last British singles player at Wimbledon faces Belgium’s Zizou Bergs in the third round.

Wildcard Fery, who is through to the third round of a grand slam for the first time, said following his second-round win over Otto Virtanen that he was looking forward to playing on one of the big courts.

But the 23-year-old has been scheduled to play Bergs, the world No 37, third on Court 18, which was the scene of his victory against qualifier Virtanen in the second round on Thursday.

The Centre Court schedule is strong, with match-ups featuring defending champion Iga Swiatek against Filipino star Alexandra Eala, last year’s runner-up Amanda Anisimova against former grand slam champion Madison Keys, and between the popular Matteo Berrettini and Grigor Dimitrov.

But matches like 17th seed Frances Tiafoe against 10th seed Alexander Bublik, which is last on Court No 1, and French Open runner-up Flavio Cobolli against 19th seed Karen Khachanov, which is on No 2 Court, will be staged on bigger arenas that Fery’s match against Bergs.

Asked following his win over Virtanen if he was looking forward to potentially playing on Centre Court or Court No 1 as the last British player in the draw, Fery said: “No idea. I’m not going to speculate. I assume one of those courts, yeah. It will be great to have a lot of people watching and a lot of support.”

Meanwhile, Serena Williams and Venus Williams’ doubles match has been included on the match schedule, but listed as “to be arranged”. They have not been assigned a court, with Serena still an injury doubt after “tweaking her knee” during her defeat to Maya Joint in the singles on Tuesday evening,