Virtanen caused one of the shocks of the first round by knocking out fourth seed Ben Shelton in a five-set thriller, and that gruelling contest served him well in the opening set, holding off four break points from Fery before forcing a loss of serve at the first attempt in game 11 and wrapping up the opener in the following game.
But the four-hour 24-minute contest with Shelton could have been a factor in the next three sets, as the 140th-ranked Finn could not maintain the same level against the home favourite, ranked 26 places higher.
The turning point came in the second-set tiebreak after neither player could force a break of serve - a run of four points in a row took the decider from 3-3 to a 7-3 tiebreak win for Fery. Having finally been broken in game five of set three, Virtanen was unable to battle back, and a second break of serve in the ninth put Fery one set away from a maiden Grand Slam third round place.
That was the very same prize Virtanen was chasing, but again things went astray in the middle of the set, going down 3-1, and from then on the wildcard was able to hold serve and seal the victory.
Heliovaara & Patten safely through
In the men's doubles, 2024 champions Harri Heliovaara and Henry Patten were given an early test by Terence Atmane and Luca Sanchez before securing a straight-sets win on Tuesday (7-5, 6-2).
The French duo had chances to break in the first set, but the number one seeds held them off and made a crucial break in game 11 before taking the opening set. The Finn and Brit were then ruthless in the second set, dropping just four points from serve and breaking in games three and seven en route to a comfortable win.
The world number ones will face Americans Mac Kiger and Patrik Trhac in the second round.
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