Marcus Willis making waves at Wimbledon

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  • Marcus Willis is the hot topic at Wimbledon

    The most talked about player at Wimbledon is not a world No1 or a defending champion.

    It’s not Andy Murray or Serena Williams or Novak Djokovic or Roger Federer. It is a player ranked 772 in the world called Marcus Willis.

    Willis, a 25-year-old Brit who is playing his first-ever tour-level singles tournament, is on the cover of every local newspaper here in London.

    He has emerged as the man of the hour at the All England Club thanks to his back story that is straight out of romantic comedy film, and the seven consecutive matches he has now won from pre-qualifying all the way into the Wimbledon second round.

    A tennis coach at Warwick Boat Club who has been playing French and German league matches for the past few months, Willis barely made it into the LTA’s wild card play-offs – called pre-qualifying rounds – before he blasted one opponent after the other with a game he himself describes as “unorthodox”.

    He almost quit tennis altogether and was heading to Philadelphia to take up coaching full-time until he met a girl who convinced him to do otherwise.

    “I met the girl. She told me not to, so I didn’t. Do what I’m told,” was his concise version of the story.

    Willis had been checking out of his hotel every single morning thinking it would be his last day alive in qualifying or the main draw but he keeps exceeding his own expectations.

    Not only is he now in the Wimbledon second round, he gets to face Federer – the most successful man to ever play at this tournament.

    The fairytale story could not get any better.

    “I think it’s one of the best stories in a long time in our sport,” Federer said after his first round win.

    “This is the kind of stories we need in our sport. I think it’s a great, great story. I’m very excited to be playing him actually. It’s not something that I get to do very often. I’m looking forward to that.”

    Willis has created a frenzy at Wimbledon with the atmosphere during his first round victory over world No54 Ricardas Berankis resembling that of a football stadium on a derby match day.

    Did you know?

    • No772 Marcus Willis is the lowest-ranked qualifier to reach the second round at a grand slam since No923 Jared Palmer at the 1988 US Open.
    • Willis is the lowest-ranked player to reach the second round at Wimbledon since No861 Tommy Haas in 2015.
    • Willis earned a wild card into men’s singles qualifying after winning the LTA Wimbledon wild card play-off. The last time a British wildcard into men’s singles qualifying reached the second round of the main draw was No661 Chris Eaton in 2008. This was also the last time that any British qualifier won a main draw men’s singles match.

    Loud chants, shoes thrown in the air, epic celebrations… they were scenes that will go down in history.

    “Goran (Ivanisevic) just came around and shook my hand. He’s my hero. I’m a bit, yeah,” Willis said giving a funny star-struck face.

    Murray’s first tweet in over two months was about Willis.

    On Monday Willis was standing on the lawn outside the Players’ restaurant before Tracy Austin stopped to say hello. “You have an amazing story,” the American legend told him. “Make sure you enjoy this.”

    As a junior, Willis was ranked as high as 15 in the world junior rankings but then the switch to the men’s circuit did not go as planned. He says he lacked drive and discipline – he was nicknamed Cartman, the character from the animated series South Park due to his physique – until he decided to turn things around three years ago.

    “I was a bit of a loser. I was overweight. I don’t know. I just looked myself in the mirror, I said ‘you’re better than this’,” he explains.

    “My coach worked very, very hard with me. A lot of main people, my family, my close friends got behind me. It’s key. You can’t do this alone. It’s a very lonely sport. You need people around you.

    “Six months to a year ago, I was not very confident, to be honest. Kept getting injured, tore my hamstring twice, hurt my knee earlier this year. Had a bit of a rough phase. I was down, struggling to get out of bed in the morning.”

    It’s a stark contrast to the feel-good story he has become.

    Many players have followed Willis’ story the past few days and are just as invested in his run here as the public has been.

    “Me, personally, with my history, I love a story like that,” said world No85 Dustin Brown, who stunned Rafael Nadal in the second round here last year.

    “A guy like that deserves it, playing already six matches coming through. And I hope his body is keeping up and he will be able to have a very good match against Fed.

    “He wanted to play at Wimbledon and now he’s going to play on Centre Court against Fed most likely. Yeah, hats off to him. Been a great run so far and hopefully he can have a great match out there.”

    Marcus willis facts

    • Willis had not played a professional tour-level match since January prior to his Wimbledon qualifying campaign. He had been coaching and playing matches in German and French tennis leagues.
    • Willis is making his grand slam – and Tour-level – singles debut.
    • Willis is one of 15 British men and women to start the Wimbledon main draw.

    Nick Kyrgios, who had his dream moment here at Wimbledon when he beat Nadal to reach the quarter-finals on his tournament debut when he was ranked just 144 in the world in 2014, is equally intrigued by Willis.

    “The last time I saw Marcus Willis I was playing a challenger in Nottingham. I didn’t even know he was still playing tennis,” said Kyrgios yesterday.

    “I saw him qualify. I always knew he was a talented guy. He’s pretty handsy. I mean, dreams do start here. It happened for me. It’s a good week for him. He’s facing Federer next, but anything can happen, I guess.”

    For Willis, he’s hoping this isn’t just a one-off experience. He’s seen the good side of the sport and is hoping to become a regular in it.

    “Now I’m here. I’m going to enjoy every minute and try and do it on a regular basis,” said Willis.

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