Alexander Zverev is relieved to have finally produced his best tennis at Wimbledon, having reached his maiden final at SW19 by defeating home favourite Arthur Fery.

Though the vast majority of the Centre Court crowd were rooting for British wildcard Fery, Zverev was simply too good for his opponent as he triumphed 7-6 (7-0) 6-2 6-4.

The Roland-Garros champion has now reached finals at all four grand slams, becoming just the third German man to achieve that feat in the Open Era, after Boris Becker and Michael Stich.

Zverev had never previously gone beyond the fourth round in nine appearances at Wimbledon, losing at that stage in 2017, 2021 and 2024.

The German suffered a stunning first-round exit at the hands of Arthur Rinderknech only last year, and he acknowledged after Friday's victory that he had endured plenty of issues at the All England Club in the past.

"This grand slam has always been the one that I have struggled with most, and all of a sudden I am in the final, so I am incredibly happy," Zverev said.

"I'm incredibly proud of my team and everyone involved, and we have one match to go on Sunday."

Since 1988, Zverev is the seventh player to reach finals at all four grand slams, the Olympic Games and the ATP Finals, after Andre Agassi, Rafael Nadal, Roger Federer, Andy Murray, Novak Djokovic and Carlos Alcaraz.

Fery, meanwhile, will rise to 36th in the world rankings as a result of his dream run to the last four, having started the tournament ranked a lowly 114th. 

He became the first wildcard to reach the men's singles semi-finals at Wimbledon since eventual champion Goran Ivanisevic in 2001, and Zverev had lofty praise for the 23-year-old.

"I have to give credit to Arthur – he's an unbelievable player. He's going to be a senior citizen on our Tour because I think he is going to play for 15-plus years," Zverev said.

"This is just the beginning of his career. I really think he is going to do amazing things in this sport.

"For me, something incredible here is, yes, I know that 99.9% of this stadium was wanting Arthur to win, but it was still such an incredible atmosphere and a fair crowd as well. 

"I enjoyed every second of it. For me, I think a lot of stadiums in the world should follow the example of this crowd. For me, it's one of the best crowds to play tennis in front of."

Zverev will now take on either Jannik Sinner or Djokovic in the showpiece match, having previously lost to the Italian in the 2025 Australian Open final. 

None of his four major finals have been against Djokovic, losing to Dominic Thiem at the 2020 US Open and Alcaraz at the 2024 French Open, then beating Flavio Cobolli at Roland-Garros last month.