ARTICLE:
Arthur Fery is heading back to competitive tennis in England, this time for Great Britain's Davis Cup tie against Ecuador.
The announcement came this week, according to BBC Sport, and named Fery alongside British number one Cameron Norrie, Henry Patten, and Lloyd Glasspool. A fifth player will be added to the squad closer to the date of the tie.
Fery, 24, jumped to a career-high world ranking of 36 after his run at Wimbledon this summer, where he entered as a wildcard ranked 114th in the world and reached the semifinal. That made him the lowest-ranked player to reach Wimbledon's last four since Goran Ivanisevic in 2001.
"I am really proud to be able to represent GB again," Fery said. "It is going to be a bit of a different scenario this time, at home, in the World Group and trying to qualify for the final eight. There might be some extra pressure, but I'm ready for it."
The best-of-five tie takes place over two days on Sept. 19 and 20 at London's Copper Box Arena. Day one features two singles matches. Day two starts with a doubles match followed by two more singles encounters.
The Davis Cup announcement came the same day Fery suffered a 7-5, 7-6 loss to world number eight Alex de Minaur in the third round of the Cincinnati Masters. Rain delayed the start of the match and later forced both players off the court with fifth seed de Minaur leading 7-5 and 5-1. After a 30-minute delay, Fery fought back to take the second set to a tiebreak, but de Minaur controlled the tiebreak and won 7-3.
Former world number four Jack Draper was not included in the Davis Cup squad. Draper, also 24, broke down in tears earlier this month during his first match back since June after a persistent arm injury. That injury dropped his world ranking from fourth to as low as 160th over a 12-month span.
This will be Fery's first competitive appearance in England since Wimbledon.
