Not many of us had heard of Marcus Willis, but how I wish I had heard of him now. The 25 year old Brit won his first round match yesterday. What makes this absolutely remarkable is that his opponent was 718 place above him in the rankings! It had been a long road to get to where he is today and Marcus Willis is an incredible story in a sport of mega bucks prize money and watch endorsement deals.
Born in Slough, Willis grew up in the market town of Warwick playing at his local club the Warwick Boat Club. As a youth he was promising and trained as a junior with Andy Murray on occasion. Unfortunately for many reasons his talent was not fully realised. He said in an interview this was down to laziness, some bad choices and poor lifestyle. This lifestyle led him to being overweight and getting the nickname Cartman (hence our picture!). His career was filled with Futures tournaments around Europe, paying his own way with credit cards. Unlike English footballers he was adventurous enough to move abroad and play club tennis in France and Germany while subsidising his dreams with coaching too.
At the start of the year his dreams were slowly leaving him and he had begun seriously taking a position as a coach in Pennsylvania, USA. “I had options in Philadelphia. Nothing was dead set. But, yeah, it was an option I had. Don’t know if I would have gone or not. But, yeah, I met the girl. She told me not to, so I didn’t. Do what I’m told.” The girl he was referring to is his Girlfriend Jennifer Bates who convinced him to not give up and leave, and it was great advice. At the beginning of the year he had made just £258 in total, but is now guaranteed £50,000! That is not to say it was easy.
He went through the rigorous process of pre-qualifying, playing three matches followed by three more in actual qualifying. He came back twice from a set down in those, but had no such problem in the first round of Wimbledon. Playing Ricardas Berankis (ranked 54th) he won in straight sets 6-3 6-3 6-4. He saved 19 break points from the Lithuanian, but broke five of his own. If he was not playing yesterday his schedule included coaching the ‘Mini Reds Under 8’s in Warwick and an under 14 one on one session. Instead he was playing one handed backhand winning shots, expertly passing his opponent. You can’t call him Cartman anymore as Willis looks much more an athlete that the especially with the shine of confidence the experience has given him. He had his own band of fans chanting and making sure he enjoyed the experience. He even gave BBC his top tips for the success. It is about to get even better though as he potentially sets up a meeting with Roger Federer and therefore Centre or No1 Court!
Marcus Willis is what I love about Tennis. A never say die attitude has kept him playing through the pure love of the game. Even if he does nothing after this he has achieved more than I could ever dream of and probably lined the pockets of many happy tennis betting enthusiasts. It is refreshing to see such a down to earth person live out his dream, and I think that is part of his appeal. His slightly overweight posture, his charmingly naive press conference, all means we live the matches through him as he is relateable. We can all picture being in his shoes as he seems that little bit closer to us than the multimillionaire’s we usually see. His ITF profile sums it up – “Hobbies: Football, supports Liverpool FC, shopping – favourite shops, Primark! Calvin Klein”. You wouldn’t catch Venus Williams in Primark!
