Arthur Fery staged a second consecutive remarkable fightback to become surely Britain’s most unlikely Wimbledon quarter-finalist.

The 23-year-old entered the tournament as a wild card ranked 114, with only two grand slam victories to his name and never having won a five-set match.

Now he has won two in a row, both from seemingly hopeless positions, after beating former semi-finalist Grigor Dimitrov 7-5 3-6 4-6 6-4 7-6 (10/7).

Having trailed Zizou Bergs 4-1 in both the fourth and fifth sets on Saturday, Fery was twice a break down in the fourth here but roused himself magnificently to set up a clash with ninth seed Flavio Cobolli, who he beat at the Australian Open.

After all the doom and gloom surrounding British tennis to start the fortnight, Fery’s run has been quite the plot twist, and the Centre Court crowd roared on their new hero.

His victory makes him the first British wild card to reach the quarter-finals at a grand slam in the open era, while he joins Andy Murray, Tim Henman, Cameron Norrie, Roger Taylor and Greg Rusedski as home male members of the Wimbledon last-eight club.

When Dimitrov’s final backhand hit the net after three hours and 55 minutes, Fery looked to his family and team in the stands in disbelief.

“I’ve no words right now,” he said. “It’s incredibly tough to put words to what I’ve just felt on a tennis court in front of all you guys. The support was phenomenal.

“First time on this court, five sets against an absolute legend of the game. I grew up five minutes from here, I grew up coming to watch matches on this court.”

Turning to Roger Federer, Fery added: “We’ve got probably the greatest of all time watching from the front row of the Royal Box. Now playing here in front of all you guys and winning, it’s unbelievable.”

This was the first time in grand slam history that two wild cards had met so late in a tournament, with Dimitrov having slumped to 146 in the rankings after the cruel injury at the same stage here last year that robbed him of a likely victory over eventual champion Jannik Sinner.

Fery, who avoided any problems with the nosebleeds that have affected his other matches, may have feared the worst when he failed to win a point in Dimitrov’s first four service games.

But Federer took his seat just in time to see Fery play a superb returning game at 5-5, breaking the Dimitrov serve to love and then clinching the opening set.

It was a hugely impressive level from 23-year-old Fery, who has rock solid belief in both himself and his game, and he fought off two early break points in the second set to keep pace with Dimitrov.

However, having made just six unforced errors to that point, Fery then committed three in a row to drop serve at 3-4, and his dip continued at the start of the third set.

He soon roused himself and was back competing toe-to-toe with Dimitrov again but the veteran was serving strongly.

Dimitrov seemed to be in control twice leading by a break in the fourth set but this was a huge occasion for the former semi-finalist and, like Bergs had in the previous round, he tightened up, allowing Fery to hit back.

The new British number two, who will break into the top 70 next week, sensed his moment, bringing up three set points at 5-4 and taking the third in stunning fashion with a backhand pass onto the line.

Fery admits he likes to stay contained and not use the crowd too much but a fifth set on Centre Court was worth celebrating and he leapt high, punching the air.

The tussle for supremacy in the decider to-ed and fro-ed as the tension and excitement grew in the stands.

Fery was two points from victory at 5-4 30-30 but Dimitrov held his nerve and there was little between them in the tie-break until the home star moved 8-6 ahead and seized his opportunity.