Ignacio Buse Claims First ATP Title, Defeats Arthur Fery in Winston-Salem Final
Arthur Fery’s summer surge hit its first hard stop in Winston-Salem, where the Briton’s bid for a maiden ATP title ran straight into the cold efficiency of Ignacio Buse.
The Peruvian, already a champion at ATP 500 level this year, dismantled Fery 6-3 6-2 in the final on Saturday to claim the ATP 250 crown and become the youngest winner in the tournament’s history at 22.
For Fery, it was a rare off-key afternoon at the end of a remarkable two months.
From Wimbledon roar to a flat final
Only eight weeks ago, Fery was ranked outside the world’s top 100. Then came Wimbledon. A run to the semi-finals at the All England Club turned him into one of the stories of the summer and rewrote his ranking prospects almost overnight.
Winston-Salem underlined that rise. The 24-year-old became the first Briton to reach the final in the North Carolina event’s history, and his reward is a new career-high mark of 33 in the world. That leap carries extra significance: he will overtake Cameron Norrie as British number one.
The final itself, though, never quite caught fire for him.
Early on, the pair traded blows on near-even terms. Fery held firm on serve, probing, looking for the angles that had served him so well on grass and hard courts in recent weeks. Buse matched him, step for step, waiting for the moment to strike.
The pressure finally told at 4-3. Serving to stay in touch, Fery was broken to love. Buse pounced on short balls, took time away, and ripped through the game with a clarity of purpose that set the tone for the rest of the contest. One game later, the opening set was gone.
Buse steps on the gas
If the first set slipped, the second threatened to run away.
Buse came out swinging and Fery’s resistance cracked twice in quick succession. The Peruvian opened up a double-break lead, stretching the rallies, dragging Fery wide, and forcing errors from a racket that had looked so assured all week.
Fery did claw one break back, a flicker of the grit that has driven his rapid climb. It never turned into a full revival. Buse shut the door with three consecutive games, closing out the match with the composure of a player already accustomed to lifting trophies.
This is his second title of the season, backing up his statement win over Tommy Paul in the Hamburg ATP 500 final in May. Winston-Salem confirms it: Buse is not a one-week wonder.
New British number one heads to New York
Defeat in the final will sting, but Fery has little time to dwell on it. His next stop is New York and a first appearance in the main draw at the US Open, which begins on Sunday.
The draw has offered no gentle introduction. He faces Italian 13th seed Lorenzo Musetti in the opening round at Flushing Meadows, a test of both his upgraded ranking and his newfound status at the top of British men’s tennis.
He will not be alone in New York. In the men’s draw, Norrie and Jan Choinski join him, along with qualifiers Toby Samuel and Harry Wendelken and lucky loser Jacob Fearnley. On the women’s side, Katie Boulter leads the British challenge, backed by qualifiers Fran Jones and Harriet Dart.
Jack Draper and Emma Raducanu, both sidelined by injury, will watch this one from afar.
So Fery arrives in Queens as a beaten finalist, a fresh British number one, and a player suddenly expected to belong at this level. The question now is simple: can his summer story stretch all the way into the New York night?
