Four years on from his clash with Federer, Britain’s cult hero is plotting a doubles comeback. It’s the return of... WILDCARD WILLIS
Marcus Willis smiles as he reminisces about playing roger Federer at Wimbledon and being sent home from australia as a junior.
Those memories are connected to why he was at sunderland’s tennis centre last week, staying in a £ 13- per- night AIRBNB, trying to relaunch his colourful tennis career.
after nearly two years out of the game, Willis is quietly making a comeback, having finally decided that his future lies in employing his exceptionally sharp hands as a doubles specialist.
Back on the lowest rung of the professional tour, he reached the semi-finals in Glasgow last month but made a first-round exit in sunderland, earning the grand sum of £70. it is a far cry from the summer of 2016, when he enjoyed one of those fleeting, Wimbledon-related surges of national fame.
already a part-timer, coaching at Warwick Boat club, he won six singles qualifying matches and then made the second round, facing the great Federer on centre court and winning seven games after losing the first set 6-0.
His built-for-comfort appearance was one reason why the public imagination was so captured. ‘i’m never going to be skinny,’ he cheerfully Tennis Correspondent admits. ‘i’m not really built for tennis but i’ve always loved it.
‘i’ve loved playing singles and prefer that, but i’m 29 and people have been telling me for ages that i should play doubles.’
Willis is a contemporary of British No 1 Dan Evans, regularly getting into scrapes with him in their younger days, including on that trip to australia.
Evans, now inside the world’s top 30, has been a source of inspiration for Willis abandoning life as a coach to play again.
The player variously known as Willbomb or cartman (after the hefty cartoon character in South
Park) wants to get back to Wimbledon — and Melbourne.
‘That whole time at Wimbledon was great, but mentally i struggled afterwards and had some elbow and knee problems,’ he says. ‘i was constantly thinking nothing was going to be as good as that again, and i wondered what the point was. i got very negative. But i don’t want to look back and think i didn’t give it a proper go. There’s nothing wrong with being a tennis coach but it doesn’t give the same satisfaction. i feel i’ve got more of a purpose now.’
Willis again showed his talent at Wimbledon in 2017 when he and Jay clarke upset defending doubles champions Pierre-Hugues Herbert and Nicolas Mahut but his career petered out a year later.
One of the game’s more threedimensional characters seemed to be lost to it. His cartman nickname was bestowed on him by a Twitter troll following a video clip of him consuming a can of coke and a snickers bar on court.
‘i played a challenger in Tennessee and won five matches in a row while weighing 116 kilos (18st 3lb),’ he recalls. ‘i was fit but fat if that makes sense. i beat Tennys sandgren and at the end of the match i asked a friend for a coke and he brought a snickers as well.
‘The cameras zoomed in on me, so a lot of people saw it.
‘somebody called me cartman as an insult but i thought it was funny. at my stag-do, my best man got me a cartman outfit and i had to walk round Dublin in it.’
He was part of an interesting generation of GB players, among whom Evans has proved the most successful. another around their age was lewis Burton, who has had a high profile recently as the partner of the late caroline Flack.
He and Willis played a lot of doubles together as they attempted to make the grade.
‘lewis is an awesome doubles player, i would have seen him as a top-50 player for sure,’ he says.
‘We won a lot of matches together. He is a good athlete, his volleys are good, his serve is good. Probably the worst part of his game was his return but he could get on good streaks. He loves tennis but always preferred doubles.
‘i think he quit too early but he’s a good-looking boy, got a lot of different skills and ways to make money. i’ve sent him messages recently, let him know i’m there but i don’t know how i can help him. He is a very good guy — good energy, i like him a lot.’
Evans, with whom he still practices at home, is finally maximising his enormous natural ability. He was on the trip to australia that saw Willis sent home by the LTA for breaches of discipline.
‘i don’t think i deserved it, i didn’t do anything too bad,’ he says. ‘i was mucking around, most of the stuff i did Evo was with me.
‘i was on the loo one morning and missed the bus to get my accreditation and the practice time changed. i didn’t have my rackets.
‘There was a thing in an amusement arcade when i was messing around with a basketball game.
‘i got rollocked for that. it was a bit naughty but i didn’t do one particular thing to get me the red card. i really wanted to play and was seeded in the (australian Open) junior event. Now i want to go back. i feel i missed out, so that is another goal.’
To that end he is getting his weight back down using an app that measures his calories.
This month he has gone to Turkey — leaving his wife and two children, plus two stepchildren, at home — to play a series of events having secured wildcards by playing with well-known local player Tuna altuna.
‘i haven’t put a time limit on it but my first aim is top 400 and then 200,’ he adds. ‘i am sure i can do it in doubles. i have found it harder than most to go to bed at the right time, eat and drink the right things. That doesn’t come easy to me but i am still learning.’
‘Wimbledon was great... but I struggled afterwards’