'Can't believe it': British wildcard books Wimbledon semifinal spot

Arthur Fery kept his remarkable Wimbledon campaign alive by downing ninth seed Flavio Cobolli. (Getty Images/Visionhaus)

British wildcard Arthur Fery is through to the semifinals at Wimbledon after downing Italy's Flavio Cobolli in straight sets.

Fery is just the second wildcard to reach this stage at Wimbledon. Goran Ivanišević did in 2001 and won the tournament.

Fery will take on Alexander Zverev after the German easily accounted for Taylor Fritz in his quarterfinal overnight.

Hometown hero Arthur Fery has become just the second wildcard ever to reach the semifinals at Wimbledon after downing Italy's Flavio Cobolli.

The 23-year-old, who grew up just five minutes away from the All England Club, was again a picture of incredulity after he completely outplayed ninth seed Cobolli 6-4, 7-6 (4), 6-0 in front of an ecstatic Centre Court crowd overnight.

It's a quarter of a century since Goran Ivanišević became the first wildcard to win the men's singles title and Fery, ranked 114, is now just two wins away from matching the Croat's historic 2001 achievement.

Having battled through tie-breaks in comeback wins against Zizou Bergs and Grigor Dimitrov, Fery could hardly believe it seemed all so easy to defeat the Italian French Open finalist Cobolli, who had dismantled Alex de Minaur's challenge in the previous round.

With his first win over a top-10 player, Fery has become just the fifth British man in the Open era to make the last four at Wimbledon, joining Andy Murray, Tim Henman, Roger Taylor and, most recently, Cameron Norrie, who he will surpass next week to become the national No.1.

"It just gets better and better every match. Can't believe it. It's incredible, just can't believe it," said Fery, who will turn 24 on the day of the final on Sunday.

It will only get harder for Fery in Friday morning's semifinal when he must face French Open champion Alexander Zverev, who downed American Taylor Fritz 6-4, 6-4, 6-2 overnight.

Alexander Zverev kept his hopes of back-to-back grand slam titles alive with a win over Taylor Fritz. (Getty Images: Matthew Stockman)

Fery, who had won only two tour-level matches before this year's grass-court campaign, at least went in having defeated Cobolli before, in the first round of the Australian Open in January.

But the Italian had been suffering from a stomach bug then and was expected to be much sharper on Wednesday, especially after his straight-sets take down of Australian No.1 de Minaur on Monday.

Fery was also reminded of the momentous nature of the day as he shook hands with Queen Camilla while waiting to go