The "Fery-tale" continues at Wimbledon.
World No. 114 Arthur Fery, a two-time All-American at Stanford who grew up about a mile away from the All England Club, is a semifinalist at the grass-court Grand Slam.
The British player, 23, who needed a wild-card invitation to enter the tournament, beat ninth-seeded Flavio Cobolli 6-4, 7-6 (4), 6-0 on Centre Court in front of roaring home fans and a royal box contingent that included Britain's Queen Camilla on Wednesday.
In the Open era, there had been only three other men's wild cards to reach the semifinals at any major: Jimmy Connors (1991 US Open), Henri Leconte (1992 French Open) and Goran Ivanisevic (2001 Wimbledon champion).
"It gets better and better every match," Fery said in an on-court interview. "I just can't believe it."
He earned a standing ovation after winning the first set. The deafening roar that followed Fery taking the tiebreaker to seal the second set was heard inside Wimbledon's other main stadium -- No. 1 Court, where Alexander Zverev was in the process of beating Taylor Fritz in straight sets.
Fery became just the third player outside the ATP's Top 100 to reach the Wimbledon semifinals over the past 40 years, alongside No. 237 Vladimir Voltchkov in 2000 and No. 125 Ivanisevic in 2001.
Fery sealed his memorable victory with an ace and fell onto his back to soak in the applause.
"That last game, I felt emotions that I hadn't experienced before in my life," he said.
A short time later, Zverev wrapped up his 6-4, 6-4, 6-2 win to set up a semifinal against Fery on Friday.
Moments before the start of their quarterfinal match, Fery and Cobolli were surprised to meet Camilla in the hallway moments before they walked onto court.
"She came to say hello, she introduced herself to both me and Flavio," Fery said. "It's obviously an honor to play in front of her. Great to meet her. ... Playing in front of tennis legends and now the queen, so it's special."
Roger Federer had been on hand Monday when Fery ousted Grigor Dimitrov in five sets in a fourth round that was also on Centre Court.
Camilla wasn't the only royal rooting for Fery on Wednesday. Princess Kate congratulated him in a social media post that noted his "fantastic achievement that has inspired so many."
The French-born Fery, who said he feels "very British," also exchanged pleasantries with Camilla after his big victory.
"She was waiting for me at the end of the match. She congratulated me. I told her how much of an honor it was for me to play in front of her," said Fery, who turns 24 on the day of the men's final. "She just said, 'Congratulations, keep going.' I told her it was my birthday on Sunday, so it would be great to play the Wimbledon final on my birthday."
The 24-year-old Cobolli, who lost the French Open final to Zverev, made 41 unforced errors to Fery's 15 and only broke the British player once to start the second set, but Fery broke back in the fourth game.
"I felt like I didn't express even 50% of my tennis. But obviously that had a lot to do with him. He was better than me," said Cobolli, who also lost to Fery in the first round at this year's Australian Open.
Fery is the fifth British man to make the semifinals at the All England Club in the Open era -- but the first unseeded British player to do so, man or woman.
He has played 25 sets in this tournament; before Wimbledon, he had played 21 total sets across his entire Grand Slam career (four starts).
At Stanford, Fery was named the 2023 Pac-12 Singles Player of the Year. The last college player to win a major singles title was Stanford's John McEnroe at the 1984 US Open. Since then, former college players -- man or woman -- are a combined 0-11 in major finals.
Fery will try to become the first men's former college player to reach any major final since Kevin Anderson at 2018 Wimbledon.
Friday's other semifinal pits seven-time Wimbledon champion Novak Djokovic against defending champion Jannik Sinner.
ESPN Research and The Associated Press contributed to this report.