British wildcard Arthur Fery beat Zizou Bergs in a five-set thriller to reach the Wimbledon fourth round and keep home singles hopes alive – despite suffering three nosebleeds during the match.
Wildcard Fery recovered twice from falling a set and a break down to come through 2-6 7-5 2-6 7-6 (7-3) 7-6 (10-5) in front of a packed crowd on court 18.
Fery was outside the world’s top 100 at the start of the championships but played above his ranking to become sole home player to reach the singles third round.
After fighting back to beat Bosnia’s Damir Dzumhur and Finland’s Otto Virtanen in his first two matches, it seemed as though Fery had finally run out of steam against Belgium’s Bergs.
But the 23-year-old held his nerve and then rallied to become the first British wildcard to reach the Wimbledon fourth round since Andrew Foster in 1993.
“No words for it, honestly,” said Fery, who threw himself to the floor in celebration after a gruelling four hours and 39 minutes on court – the longest match of this year’s tournament.
“I don’t know what is going on right now. It will take time to digest it.”
Fery will face Italy’s Matteo Berrettini or Grigor Dimitrov next.