The surge had to slow somewhere. For Arthur Fery, it happened under the bright New York glare on Grandstand Stadium, where Lorenzo Musetti applied the brakes with ruthless clarity.
The 24-year-old Briton has been surfing a remarkable wave since that wild-card charge to the Wimbledon semi-finals, a run that dragged him from relative obscurity into the sharp focus of the sport. Last week he backed it up with a first ATP final in North Carolina. He arrived at Flushing Meadows not just as a story, but as a threat.
He left with a 6-3 6-3 7-5 defeat and a reminder of how unforgiving this level can be.
Fery, now the British number one, came close to being seeded in New York. A few more ranking points and he might have sidestepped a player of Musetti’s calibre in the opening rounds. Instead, he ran straight into the 13th seed – and discovered why the Italian sits where he does.
For a while, though, Fery stood toe to toe with him.
The early exchanges were sharp, clean, aggressive. Fery traded blows from the baseline, matched Musetti’s variety, and looked entirely comfortable in the noise and bustle of Grandstand. Then came one ragged service game that changed the feel of the afternoon.
Two double faults, a couple of loose points, and the first set slipped away. No drama. No long deuce battles. Just a door left ajar and Musetti walking straight through it.
That stung. Fery, who built his Wimbledon run on stubborn defiance and late surges, tried to summon that same resistance in the second set. At 4-2 down he carved out four break points, each one a chance to flip the script. Each one came and went.
When the last opportunity died with a ball tumbling into the net, Fery’s frustration boiled over as his arms flew up in disbelief. Musetti, unflustered, tightened his grip and closed out the set with the air of a man used to these moments.
Still, Fery refused to go quietly. The third set opened with a jolt: the Italian’s usually pristine backhand floated long, handing Fery his first break of the match and a burst of hope. The crowd sensed a shift. So did Musetti.
He snapped straight back, creating two break points in the very next game. Fery erased the first with a blazing forehand winner, a reminder of the power and timing that carried him through Wimbledon. On the second, he missed his mark by millimetres with a backhand that shaved the line but fell the wrong side of it. The chance was gone, and with it, much of his momentum.
The toll of the last fortnight started to show. Fery’s deep run at the Winston-Salem Open had banked valuable experience and confidence, but it also banked fatigue. By the middle of the third set his legs looked heavier, his reactions a fraction slower. Musetti, himself a former Wimbledon semi-finalist, needed no invitation. Another break arrived, this one almost gift-wrapped as the Briton’s energy dipped.
Even then, Fery’s competitive streak flickered. Staring down defeat, he saved two match points, forcing Musetti to find something extra. The Italian did just that, thundering down an unreturnable serve on the third match point to slam the door shut.
No miracle comeback this time. No five-set epic. Just a straight-sets exit that underlined both how far Fery has come, and how far there still is to go at the sharp end of the grand slams.
The wave has dipped, but it hasn’t crashed. The question now is how quickly Britain’s new number one can rise again from this lesson in New York.
