Britain's last four singles players aim to revive Wimbledon hopes
A Monday wipeout left all 10 Britons out, but Swan, Fearnley, Fery and Choinski gave Wimbledon a brief home lift and kept Thursday interest alive.
Katie Swan, Jacob Fearnley, Arthur Fery and Jan Choinski were the last four Britons left in the Wimbledon singles draw after Tuesday’s brief recovery at the All England Club. Their progress offered a sharp break from Monday’s collapse, when all 10 British singles players lost in the first round and British number one Cameron Norrie went out to Michael Zheng.
The damage had already deepened before a ball was struck for Jack Draper and Emma Raducanu. Draper withdrew because of a recurrence of his arm injury, while Raducanu pulled out with a stress fracture, leaving Britain to start the Championships with little margin for optimism. The opening-round losses swelled to 15 by the end of the day, the first time in 38 years that so many Britons had fallen at the first hurdle.
Swan provided the first home win, beating Romania’s Irina-Camelia Begu 6-4, 6-4 and turning from a footnote in the early gloom into Wimbledon’s surprise survivor. Her run came after she won two Futures tournaments in Japan in May, and her next test was a steep one against Madison Keys, the 2025 Australian Open champion and world number 22, who had also won Eastbourne the previous week and was being viewed as one of the title favourites.
Fearnley offered the most convincing case that Britain still had a genuine contender in the draw. He battled past Alex Michelsen in a five-set match, a result that marked him out as the player most capable of turning one win into a longer run. Fery brought a different kind of promise. His straight-sets victory over Damir Dzumhur followed a quarter-final run at Queen’s in the build-up to Wimbledon, form that suggested the grass could suit him well. Choinski, meanwhile, kept the home interest alive with a straight-sets win over Vit Kopriva, the quiet survivor in a week that had already removed most of the noise around Britain’s singles challenge.
For a tournament that opened with all the pressure on the home side and almost none of the results, the four men and women left standing at least gave Wimbledon a pulse. Whether that becomes a longer British storyline now depends on Swan against Keys, and on how far Fearnley, Fery and Choinski can push the mood beyond one day’s relief.
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