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The Princess of Wales was on a roving mission to follow the fortunes of the British players here on Thursday and, though she was not long detained on No 1 Court, where Katie Swan went down in straight sets to Madison Keys, there was more to cheer on court 18 as Arthur Fery – born in France but raised a stone’s throw from the All England Club – reached the third round for the first time with a four-set defeat of Otto Virtanen.

Fery lost the first set of his match when losing his serve for the only time in the match at 5-6 in the opener, and then suffered a nosebleed shortly afterwards. But he reeled off the next three with relative ease to win 5-7, 7-6 (3), 6-3, 6-3 and advance to a third-round meeting with Zizou Bergs.

Fery’s family home is 10 minutes away from the grounds, which means he can sleep in his own bed during the tournament rather than it being just another stop in a tennis pro’s nomadic path around the globe.

“It’s really nice,” he said. “We don’t have that luxury very often. We’re always in hotels, Airbnbs or apartments. It’s been nice staying at home for Queen’s, staying at home for Wimbledon now, having family around. It feels like I’m at home, and the drive’s not long.”

Swan, meanwhile, was swept away by Keys in front of royalty in the opening set, giving up her serve twice on the way to a 6-1 loss, but had her moments in a strange second set which included five consecutive breaks before the No 26 seed finally served it out, 6-4.

“I’m disappointed that I couldn’t sneak it into a third set,” Swan said. “But I think I can take a lot from this experience and hopefully, next time I play on a court like that, I can go into that with a bit more confidence and knowing that I can compete with these top girls.

“I’ve loved my time here this week. It’s quite surreal to think I was playing on No 1 Court today, and 14 months ago I was playing a 15K in Sharm el-Sheikh. I have come quite a long way, it’s been gradual and steady. That’s the goal from here, to keep building my ranking week-to-week.”

The British No 6, who almost quit the sport two years ago due to persistent back problems and entered the tournament with a wild card, was at her best when on the brink of defeat. She broke the Keys serve twice in the second set and took the 2025 Australian Open champion to two deuces in the final game, before the American eventually put the game to bed.

“I didn’t really know how it would feel to walk out there,” she said. “You can sit out there and experience it, but walking on to the court is a whole other thing. And then having to try and perform while my legs felt like they were lead from the nerves.

“I knew I wanted to try and get the crowd going as early as I could. They were amazing, they really helped me stay positive when the score wasn’t going my way. I kept fighting and unfortunately it just didn’t go my way in the end.”

Keys, the winner of last month’s Eastbourne Open on grass, will now aim to build on her victory and improve on her best previous performance here, when she reached the quarter-finals in 2023.

“It’s obviously the slam where I’ve, I guess, done the worst,” Keys said. “Obviously I would like to make it one step further and make a semi-final or go even further and make a final or lift the trophy.

“[But] a lot of times, the game isn’t fully dictated by you. So there’s been times where I feel like I have played really well here and I’ve simply lost because the person on the other side of the net played better. I think that’s the really hard part about this sport specifically, because there’s so little that you actually control.”