Verified the story against ATP/Winston-Salem Open, LTA, ESPN and Sky Sports reports before writing. Here is the article body:
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Arthur Fery’s first ATP Tour final lasted 77 minutes. Ignacio Buse won it 6-3, 6-2 at the Wake Forest Tennis Complex on Saturday, converting four of his seven break points to deny the Briton a title and to become, at 22, the youngest champion in the Winston-Salem Open’s history.
The Peruvian’s second trophy of a breakthrough season follows his ATP 500 win in Hamburg in May. It also carries a weight of national history: Buse is only the second Peruvian man to win a tour-level singles title on hard courts, after Jaime Yzaga in 1993. He was ranked No. 135 in the world 12 months ago. On Monday he will be No. 31.
Buse controls the baseline from the first game
Fery had not dropped a set all week. He lost his first service game of the final and never recovered the initiative. Buse took the opening set in 30 minutes, then broke three more times in the second, dictating from the baseline and giving the Briton almost nothing to attack on second serve.
It was a performance built on the same platform that carried Buse past Daniel Altmaier, Manuel Cerúndolo and Benjamin Bonzi, the last of those a 6-2, 4-6, 6-1 semi-final in which he converted seven of 15 break points and did not lose a first-serve point in the deciding set. Against Fery, the pattern simply repeated at higher speed.
“It is very special for me,” Buse said at the trophy presentation. “With all my team, we have been working very, very hard. Some things are very tough that we go through as tennis players, but I also want to congratulate Arthur and his team.”
Buse’s record at the tournament ties him to a specific lineage. Hubert Hurkacz was 22 years and six months old when he won here in 2019 and went on to reach world No. 6. Winston-Salem, the last ATP 250 before the US Open, has a habit of handing its trophy to players on the way up rather than on the way down.
Fery’s route to a first final, and the ranking that follows
Fery arrives at the US Open with a career-high ranking of No. 33 and the British No. 1 spot, having moved clear of Cameron Norrie. Eight weeks ago he was outside the top 100.
His week in North Carolina was straightforward until the end:
- Beat Cruz Hewitt in the opening round
- Beat Mees Rottgering
- Beat Aleksandr Kovacevic to reach the quarter-finals
- Led James Duckworth 6-4, 1-2 in the semi-final when the Australian retired injured after 59 minutes
The Duckworth retirement was Fery’s second win over him in a fortnight, after a victory in Cincinnati that produced the 24-year-old’s first Masters 1000 main-draw win. He is also the first British player to reach a Winston-Salem final in the event’s history.
“Congratulations to you and your team, Ignacio, for your second title this year,” Fery said afterwards. “I want to thank my team as well. It couldn’t be us today but thank you for everything you do for me.”
The defeat does not undo what preceded it. Fery entered Wimbledon last month ranked 114th on a wild card and reached the semi-finals, where Alexander Zverev beat him 7-6 (7-0), 6-2, 6-4. Only Andy Murray has reached a men’s singles final at Wimbledon for Britain in the Open era, and for four rounds Fery looked capable of joining him.
What it means in New York
Fery makes his US Open main-draw debut this week against Lorenzo Musetti, a seeded opponent and a considerably harder first-round test than his ranking would have drawn him a month ago. That is the immediate cost of rising fast: the reward for a career-high ranking is rarely an easy draw.
The longer question is whether the last two months represent a level or a spike. Fery’s grass-court run was played on his best surface in front of a home crowd; Winston-Salem, on hard courts and without either advantage, suggests the improvement travels. He has now won 10 of his last 12 completed matches across two surfaces.
Buse’s case is simpler. Two titles in one season, on clay and hard, at 22, with a ranking that has climbed more than 100 places in a year, is the profile of a player who belongs inside the top 30 rather than one visiting it. His challenge in New York will be doing it over best-of-five sets against opponents who have seen the tape.
Both men leave North Carolina with something they did not have a week ago. Only one of them leaves with the trophy.
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**Sources:** [ATP Tour final report](https://www.winstonsalemopen.com/en/media/news/fery-buse-winston-salem-2026-final-saturday) · [LTA](https://www.lta.org.uk/news/2026/august/arthur-fery-finishes-runner-up-to-ignacio-buse-at-winston-salem-open/) · [ESPN](https://www.espn.com/tennis/story/_/id/49759844/arthur-fery-reaches-first-atp-tour-final-winston-salem) · [Sky Sports](https://www.skysports.com/tennis/news/12110/13578421/arthur-fery-britains-wimbledon-hero-reaches-winston-salem-open-final-after-his-opponent-james-duckworth-retires-injured) · [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2026_Winston-Salem_Open_%E2%80%93_Singles)
Two notes on judgment calls: sources split on Musetti’s seeding (13 vs 14), so I left the number out; and I dropped a claim circulating that Buse won five matches without losing a set — he lost one to Bonzi, and it was Fery who reached the final unbeaten in sets. Word count is 736.
Sports journalist and editor at SportsPortal.net. Covers cricket, football, Formula 1, tennis, and basketball with a focus on how global sports connect with Pakistani audiences. Follows the PSL, Pakistan national cricket team, Premier League, and major international tournaments. Has reported on sports for digital audiences since 2021.
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