There's a junior exhibition (I'm guessing) going on at Queen's Club during the tournament and so a quick shoutout to Arthur who beat the JWR 9 today. What a good few months the kid has had.
As people who follow the juniors thread know, I've been twittering on about him for a while.
To bring some of the info over:
Arthur's parents are both French (technically he's Arthur Féry)
His mum, Olivia, used to be a pro player (for France) - got to be about WTA 225
His dad, Loïc Féry, is the President of FC Lorient.
I've never quite known why they are based here though (in London) - especially given dad works largely over there.
But he's a businessman too so might have interests in the UK - or it might be tax related - or be due to what his mum is doing...
But it's a serious, sporting family, and Arthur comes across very well.
He's certainly blasted himself onto the scene, coming from a very lowly ranking not that long ago to be the best 2002-er we have now (although I doubt his tennis team were very focused - if at all - on junior rankings at that time, far more on development as is the French way).
His dad, Loïc Féry, is the President of FC Lorient.
I've never quite known why they are based here though (in London) - especially given dad works largely over there.
But he's a businessman too so might have interests in the UK - or it might be tax related - or be due to what his mum is doing...
Perhaps not surprisingly, being President of a football team isn't his dad's main job - the investment firm he founded has its head office in Victoria Street, near Victoria Station, though it has other offices all over the world. So that explains why they live in London.
Funnily enough, his mum didn't play Fed Cup for France but she did play Fed Cup for Hong Kong - indeed, they both have a Hong Kong link.
Judging by Arthur's accent on this LondonTennisTube interview from a couple of years ago, they've been in London for quite a while - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_bgnrwc2Fvw but he was playing quite a few local tournaments in France back then too.
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I notice Arthur is down for some of the upcoming ITF events in Tunisia. Will be interesting to see how he does in 15k's after a promising summer in the UK tournaments.
I notice Arthur is down for some of the upcoming ITF events in Tunisia. Will be interesting to see how he does in 15k's after a promising summer in the UK tournaments.
Arthur did play a couple of tournaments in autumn, i.e. after his promising summer.
They weren't spectacular - he won the first round both times and lost in R2 (although one R1 victory was thanks to a retirement)
Made the semis in the doubles once too (although also helped with a walkover in the QF)
But I think, overall, he'll be reasonably OK with that. It's often a steep upwards curve at that age, moving over to seniors.
So, yes, looking forward to seeing the progress into 2021.
Will be interesting, too, to see how much pro tennis he manages to play at college.
Yeah I assume hes still going to Stanford. Dont know if hes already enrolled and studying from home. Which in theory he could do from any hotel room in the world so could play some tournaments. I guess they probably wont be opening campus till at least the next academic year.
Yeah I assume hes still going to Stanford. Dont know if hes already enrolled and studying from home. Which in theory he could do from any hotel room in the world so could play some tournaments. I guess they probably wont be opening campus till at least the next academic year.
Yes, exactly.
I know one college where the campus is open but it's optional and they say that 100% of their foreign students are currently learning remotely. And another is the same and it's 99%. Lots have trouble getting visas and entry approval, partly in general but mainly covid related.
Parents of one boy I know say their son could get in and get on campus but they are barred from entering so if anything went wrong, they couldn't go to help, so they're not happy with that and have refused letting him go.
As you say, Arthur highly likely to be physically in Europe for a while - so, yep, hopefully - for us - a few tennis events....
Interview with Mick Dickson in yesterday's Daily Fail. Stanford definitely still on the agenda. I love the one & only comment on the article which is not even remotely tennis-related. Definitely made me cringe when I read it. At least one Fail reader goes up in my estimation.