Fery's US Open dream ends in first-round loss to Musetti

Arthur Fery arrived at the US Open as a curiosity and a breakthrough story. Six months earlier, he had been ranked outside the top 200. Then came Wimbledon, where the 24-year-old Briton reached the semi-finals as a wildcard—the first man in 25 years to get that far without being seeded. The run catapulted him into the world's top 40. He was ranked 33rd when he stepped onto Grandstand, the US Open's third-largest court, on a rain-delayed third day in New York, ready to build on that momentum.

Instead, he ran into Lorenzo Musetti, Italy's 13th seed, a player who had contested semi-finals at Roland Garros and Wimbledon and reached the US Open quarter-finals the year before. Musetti had spent the past two majors sidelined with a thigh injury but was rediscovering his form. The match was a mismatch in experience and pedigree. Fery, playing only his second Grand Slam outside his home country, had never advanced past the second round at a major before this summer. Musetti was a seasoned finalist on the ATP Tour, a former world number five.

The conditions were hot and humid. Fery, who had worn ear plugs during changeovers at Wimbledon to block out distraction, did the same here. It made no difference. He began promisingly enough, but then gifted Musetti the first set with back-to-back double faults and a second break of serve. The Italian's one-handed backhand became a weapon, cutting into Fery's court and dictating the second set. By the time Musetti took it 6-3, the match had taken on the shape of a lesson.

Fery refused to fold. Down two sets, he broke Musetti's serve early in the third and led 2-0, sensing an opening. The crowd engaged. For a moment, the script seemed to shift. Then Musetti answered with four straight games. Fery's errors accumulated. He saved a match point on his own serve and broke back to level at 5-5, keeping the contest alive, but at 5-5 he played what he would later call a really bad game. Musetti took the next two games and pointed to his head in celebration after converting his third match point. The final score was 6-3, 6-3, 7-5.

Afterward, Fery was measured and analytical. His serve had abandoned him—unusual for him, he said, though he had been struggling to find rhythm on it. Against players of Musetti's calibre, the margins are small, and Fery had lost in them. He acknowledged that he was getting better as the match progressed, that he was adjusting to the conditions and the pace, but the damage was done by then. He had no regrets about playing Winston-Salem, an ATP Tour event, the week before; he had reached his first ATP final there, pushing him closer to the top 30. That was the life of a touring professional—tournament after tournament, week after week.

The loss stung, but it did not erase what Fery had already accomplished in 2026. A year ago, he was barely ranked. Now he was 33rd in the world, established in the upper reaches of professional tennis. He had few ranking points to defend heading into the Asian hard-court swing later in the month. The Wimbledon run, the ATP final, the climb from obscurity—those remained. This was a setback, not a reversal. Fery's exit left British interest in the men's singles to Jacob Fearnley, Toby Samuel, and Jan Choinski, whose first-round match against Botic van de Zandschulp had been postponed by rain until Wednesday.