As the rest of the Stanford freshman class is settling into their first quarter as college students, freshman tennis player Arthur Fery is playing in the Boys’ Singles Division of the 2020 French Open in Paris, France. Fery, the 12th ranked junior tennis player in the world, is set to play in the third round on Wednesday against the tournament’s 7th seed, Dominic Stricker of Switzerland. 

Fery hails from the United Kingdom, where he has been labeled one of the nation’s hottest prospects in the tennis game. He has been on fire so far this calendar year, winning four LTA British Tour titles over the summer and the J1 Kazan tournament in Russia back in late February. This is his second Junior Grand Slam tournament of the year, having made a third-round exit at the Junior Australian Open back in January. 

In the first round of this year’s Junior French Open, Fery dispatched Frenchman Medhi Sadaoui (6-4, 6-3) before blitzing Mario Mansilla Diez (6-1, 6-0) in a match that only lasted 47 minutes. Fery is also competing in the Boys’ Doubles event with compatriot Felix Gill. The two were scheduled to play French pair Harold Mayot and Arthur Cazaux on Tuesday, but the Frenchmen were unable to play the match due to injury so Fery and Gill advanced to the second round. Dev Javia and Hanwen Li await them on Wednesday in the next round.

This is Fery’s last junior event before he starts play in the spring with Stanford’s men’s tennis team. He is a part of a talented freshman class also comprised of Tristan Boyer, Aryan Chaudhary and Alex Lee. That group of four is considered the best recruiting class in the nation, according to TennisRecruiting.net. 

“Upon looking at the array of colleges across the country, Stanford immediately caught my eye. The incredibly high level of academics, combined with the great tennis program they run, incited my final decision to commit to Stanford,” he said to GoStanford.

Contact Ells Boone at eboone24 ‘at’ stanford.edu.