Arthur Fery in Eastbourne passed Burruchaga after a dramatic comeback and extended the British grass-court run
Arthur Fery secured a place in the second round of the ATP tournament in Eastbourne after defeating Argentina's Roman Andres Burruchaga 6:2, 4:6, 7:5 in the first round on Tuesday, 23 June 2026. The grass-court match at the Devonshire Park Lawn Tennis Club lasted a little over two hours, and according to the ATP Tour report, Fery sealed the victory after coming back from a 3:5 deficit in the deciding set. The British tennis player, who entered the main draw with a wild card from the organisers, thereby continued a good run on grass and achieved one of the most emotionally important victories of this part of the season so far. After a weaker first set, Burruchaga found his rhythm, levelled at 1:1 and was very close to advancing in the final stage of the third set, but he was unable to hold on to his break advantage. According to official tournament and ATP data, the encounter was played as part of the first round of the men's singles draw of the 2026 Lexus Eastbourne Open, an ATP 250 tournament in Eastbourne, a town on the south coast of England.
Comeback after trailing 3:5 in the deciding set
Fery entered the match decisively and took the first set 6:2, with a more aggressive approach in rallies and better conversion of return opportunities. Such a start did not continue without difficulties, as Burruchaga raised his level in the second set, stabilised his service games and punished the British player's dip. The Argentine tennis player won the second set 6:4, opening the way for a completely different end to the encounter from the one suggested by the opening part of the match. According to the ATP Tour report, Fery himself described the duel after the match as a "roller coaster", emphasising that he started the match well, then struggled in the second set and at the beginning of the third, while Burruchaga adapted better and better to the grass. The key moment came in the final stage of the deciding set, when Fery, while trailing 3:5, managed to change the direction of the encounter and win four games in a row.
Such an outcome is especially important because Burruchaga was in a position in which he could have completed a major comeback after losing the first set. Fery, however, managed to break back, equalise the pressure and then play the calmest points in the final games. The ATP Tour states that the winner finished the match with 30 winners, while Burruchaga remained on 18, and according to Infosys ATP statistics, Fery converted four of seven break points. In a match that turned on short stretches, that was the difference between a controlled opening, a crisis in the middle of the encounter and the final surge that brought him the second round. The LTA, the British tennis association and tournament organiser, stressed in its report that Fery "dug deep" in the final stage to get back into the match and that he secured the comeback on Devonshire Park's Centre Court.
Fery continues his rise on grass after Queen's Club and Birmingham
The victory in Eastbourne fits into Fery's best grass-court run at ATP level. The LTA states that he entered the tournament as British number 3 and with the best ranking of his career, 118th place in the ATP rankings, while the ATP Tour highlighted that the previous week at Queen's Club he reached a Tour quarter-final for the first time. According to the LTA, Fery also played the semi-final of the Lexus Birmingham Open at the beginning of June, and at Queen's Club and in Birmingham he was stopped by the eventual winner Francisco Cerundolo, both times in three sets. Such a sequence of results gives additional weight to the victory over Burruchaga, because it shows that Fery is not building form only through individual surprise results, but through continuity of performances on grass. In a season in which, according to the LTA, he had already qualified for the Australian Open without losing a set and there defeated Flavio Cobolli, Eastbourne brought him another result confirming progress in competitive maturity.
An important part of that progress is visible precisely in the way he closed the match against Burruchaga. Grass courts reward quick decisions, a short swing and a quality first shot after the serve, but at the same time they do not leave much room for a prolonged search for rhythm. Fery looked ready for such conditions in the first set, but after losing the second set he had to find solutions in circumstances in which his opponent had already taken the initiative. According to his statement reported by the ATP Tour, he tried to stay in the match, recover the lost break and "get over the line" in the closing stages. In the context of player development, such a victory can have a value similar to a clean result in two sets, because it confirms the ability to survive a crisis period without a complete collapse of the structure of his game.
Burruchaga missed an opportunity after a good response
Roman Andres Burruchaga arrived in Eastbourne as a dangerous opponent, although grass is not a surface profile on which Argentine players are traditionally most comfortable. In its match report, the LTA listed him as the world number 66, which made Fery's victory significant in terms of the result as well. After losing the first set convincingly, Burruchaga showed adaptation to low bounces and a faster point rhythm in the second set, and in the third he managed to gain an advantage that brought him close to the second round. Nevertheless, the final stage revealed how difficult it is on grass to close out a match when the rhythm turns and when an opponent, with the support of the stands, begins to play more decisively. According to the official ATP report, it was precisely in that final phase that Fery put together four consecutive games, leaving Burruchaga little room for a comeback.
For the Argentine player, the defeat is painful because, after a poor start, he had real control of the deciding set. At the same time, it shows how specific a test Eastbourne is in the final week before Wimbledon, because players coming from a different rhythm of the season must, in a short period, adapt their movement, return and attacking patterns to grass. Burruchaga showed in the middle of the match that he could disrupt Fery's balance, especially when he managed to extend rallies and force his opponent to play an extra shot. But in the final stage, the choice came down to several points in which the British tennis player was more aggressive and more precise. Such a defeat does not erase Burruchaga's competitiveness, but in tournament terms it leaves Fery as a player who emerged from a dramatic first round with added confidence.
A historic detail for British players in the men's draw
Fery's victory had broader tournament significance because, according to the ATP Tour, for the first time in the history of the tournament six players from Great Britain secured a place in the round of 16 of the Eastbourne men's singles draw. Alongside Fery, Jan Choinski, Jack Draper, Jack Pinnington Jones, Giles Hussey and Toby Samuel advanced to the second round. This fact is especially interesting because Eastbourne traditionally serves as one of the final competitive tests before Wimbledon, and the grass surface often highlights the specific qualities of players who spend much of their development on British courts. In Fery's case, the support of the crowd on Centre Court had a visible role, which he himself also stressed in a statement reported by the LTA. He said that players from Great Britain do not have many opportunities to perform in front of large crowds in the United Kingdom and that the atmosphere helped him endure the final stage.
This kind of result should not be interpreted as a guarantee of a continued deep run for all British representatives, but it certainly increases interest in the final stages of the week in Eastbourne. The ATP draw shows that in the second round Fery faces eighth seed Juan Manuel Cerundolo, another Argentine tennis player, and the winner of that encounter will qualify for the quarter-final. The duel against Cerundolo brings a different challenge from the one he had against Burruchaga, because he is a seeded player defending the status of favourite in that part of the draw in Eastbourne. Fery will therefore have to repeat the level of aggression from the first and final parts of the match, but also avoid the dip that allowed Burruchaga to come back. In a short-format tournament, every grass-court match can change the impression of a player's week, especially when played immediately before the Grand Slam tournament at Wimbledon.
Eastbourne as final preparation before Wimbledon
According to the official ATP Tour preview, the 2026 Lexus Eastbourne Open is being held from 22 to 27 June at the Devonshire Park Lawn Tennis Club, and it is an ATP 250 grass-court tournament. The ATP states that the tournament director is Rebecca James, that the main draw is played from Monday, 22 June to Saturday, 27 June, and that the singles final is scheduled for Saturday, 27 June, not before 14:30 local time. The total prize money for the men's tournament amounts to 773,465 euros, while the singles winner earns 117,685 euros and 250 ATP points. In the same official overview, the ATP listed Taylor Fritz, Joao Fonseca and Francisco Cerundolo among the main names of this year's edition. Fritz is competing in Eastbourne as the defending champion from 2025, when, according to the ATP, he defeated Jenson Brooksby in the final and won his fourth title at that tournament.
In its tournament guide, the LTA highlights that the Eastbourne Open is also being played in 2026 at Devonshire Park, a historic tennis complex founded in 1894, with 12 grass courts. This context explains why the tournament is considered an important part of the final preparation for Wimbledon: the conditions are fast, the time for adaptation is short, and the difference between a successful and an unsuccessful week is often measured by the ability to play several concentrated points in the final stages of sets. Fery's match against Burruchaga was precisely an example of such a test. It did not offer a routine passage, but a situation in which a player had to pull himself out of a score deficit, calm his game and use the support of the stands without turning emotion into haste. For Fery, who will await the continuation of the tournament with a new dose of confidence, the 6:2, 4:6, 7:5 victory represents both a result breakthrough and an important signal ahead of the continuation of the grass-court season.
Sources:
- ATP Tour – report on Arthur Fery's victory over Roman Andres Burruchaga in the first round of Eastbourne, including the score, statistics and player statements (link)
- Lawn Tennis Association – official tournament report on Fery's comeback in Eastbourne and the context of his grass-court run (link)
- ATP Tour – official overview of the 2026 Lexus Eastbourne Open, with dates, schedule, prize money, points and tournament information (link)
- Lawn Tennis Association – official ATP draw of Eastbourne 2026 with the list of seeds, participants, surface and prize money (link)
- Lawn Tennis Association – tournament guide and preview of Eastbourne 2026, including information on Devonshire Park, the schedule and the tournament's status in the grass-court season (link)