Marcus Willis
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| Bio | He is a professional British tennis player. Willis made his tour debut at the 2016 Wimbledon Championships having qualified for the main draw. Willis began playing tennis at the age of 9. His mother is a learning support assistant and his father is an accountant. Willis attended St Paul's Primary School, Wokingham and The Forest School, Winnersh. Willis is in a relationship with Jennifer Bate, an NHS dental surgeon and former beauty queen. Their daughter, Martha May Willis, was born in March 2017. Willis teaches at Downe House an independent girls school. Before the 2008 Australian Open began, Willis was sent home by the LTA after he had ignored a final warning about his slack attitude. The last straw came when he arrived late to a practice session, having missed the bus and forgotten his rackets. Willis reached a high of No. 15 in the combined junior world rankings in September 2008. Willis won two Futures and reached the semifinals of four Futures events, becoming world no 348 in July. Managed & sponsored by A1 Pharmaceuticals from 2013-15 that lead to 7 futures singles titles during the sponsorship. The only success for Willis in the first five months of 2016 was qualifying for the Tunisia Futures F1 in January, and progressing to the quarterfinals, where he won $356. His failure to defend the previous year's points led to his ranking falling to number 772 by the start of Wimbledon. Willis won six matches to qualify for the main draw of the 2016 Wimbledon Championships. In the first round, Willis upset Ričardas Berankis, a player ranked more than 700 places above him, to set up a clash with seven-time champion Roger Federer. Willis was defeated by Federer 6–0, 6–3, 6–4 on Centre Court in the second round, receiving a standing ovation nevertheless. In an interview after the match, Federer praised Willis, saying that since Willis had beaten Berankis, he prepared for the match as if playing someone in the same league as the top 50 players in the world. He added, "Marcus brought an unbelievable energy to the court with the fans and his personality, it was refreshing. He came up with some great shotmaking. I knew it would be different to any other match I have played at Wimbledon, it was a pleasure to play against him." The BBC held a vote for the best shot of the Wimbledon tournament, and the winner was Willis lobbing Roger Federer. Injury prevented Willis from playing immediately after Wimbledon 2016, but he was given a wild card into qualifying for the Erste Bank Open 500 in Vienna over the weekend of October 22–23. He has also been invited to play Tie Break Tens at the same venue on Sunday 23 October, against Andy Murray, Dominic Thiem and Jo Wilfried Tsonga. His second tournament after Wimbledon was a Future in Kuwait which he won. Willis didn't play too many tournaments in the first half of 2017 due to injuries and becoming a father to his first child (a girl) but played in the Great Britain F1, F2 and F3, reaching the second round, semi-finals and finals respectively, winning $2283 overall. He then reached the quarter-finals of the U.S.A. F15 but lost in the first round of the Spain F14. He then failed to qualify for the Challenger in Surbiton and then reached the second round of the Ilkley Challenger, losing to Sam Groth. At the 2017 Wimbledon Championships, Willis lost in the final round of qualifying to Illya Marchenko in straight sets, although Willis had been hindered by a knee injury he suffered against fellow Brit Liam Broady in the previous round. Since he failed to defend his points from last years Wimbledon his ranking is projected to drop below 500 in the world. In the Wimbledon doubles, he and partner Jay Clarke had been awarded a wild card for the main draw. In the opening round, they beat Jared Donaldson and Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan after coming back from two sets to love. They caused a big surprise by defeating the defending champions and second seeds Nicolas Mahut and Pierre-Hugues Herbert in the next round, also in a five-setter. Their run ended with a loss to Oliver Marach and Mate Pavić in the third round. In 2018, Willis missed Wimbledon in singles because he lost to Dan Evans in the pre-qualifying playoffs. After Wimbledon, he played for the San Diego Aviators in the World TeamTennis league, where the team narrowly missed the WTT finals. |
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