How Marcus Willis returned to humble beginnings with big stage in mind
When Marcus Willis began to plot his second coming in tennis, he was chasing a target only he believed he could reach.
Back in 2016, Willis lived out his dream as he came through qualifying for Wimbledon, won his first round match against Lithuania's Ricardas Berankis and booked a match against the great Roger Federer on Centre Court at the All England Club.
Defeat against the Swiss maestro did not dilute the appetite in the English media for stories about Willis, but it proved to be a fleeting moment in the spotlight.
Yet once the Wimbledon stardust was blown away, the talented performer struggled to make the strides up the tennis ladder he was hoping for and his story seemed to have concluded with a first round defeat at the Nottingham Open in 2018.
He spent some time away from the court and dipped his toe into coaching, but the tennis bug never left him. When he set himself a goal of playing at Wimbledon once again in doubles, he started his long and improbable journey on the ITF World Tennis Tour at M25 Roehampton in July 2022.
"I never wanted to quit playing professionally," begins Willis. "The problem was, there were not too many tournaments I could get into and we didn't have many events in Britain at the time, so that forced me to stop.
"After a couple of years of perspective, doing some coaching and playing for my French league team, I stayed in good match shape and when the LTA and the ITF put on a few more tournaments in Britain, that gave me the push to try again.
"My first tournament was at Roehampton at the National Tennis Centre and that got me my first ranking points. It all started from there."
Fellow Brit Scott Duncan was a regular partner for Willis in the early phase of his comeback story, with the LTA's move to increase the number of World Tennis Tour events in Britain adding momentum to his ambitions.
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Willis won three ITF titles alongside Duncan in 2022 and backed that up with five more with three different partners last year. His improved ranking has allowed him to move onto the ATP Challenger Tour this year, where he has won six titles with five different partners.
"The level on the ITF Tour is fantastic and tournaments are so well organised, so you have no excuses to go out there and perform"
"It has been a massive help for all the British players that we have so many tournaments being staged in this country now," he continues.
"There are opportunities to make points now and once you have points, you have a chance to travel, earn money and build some momentum.
"I've had a lot of stress along the way. I've had sponsors drop out, others come in and that has been tough, but the goal has always been there.
"After the first year and a lot of wins under my belt, I was up to around 200 in the world, so I didn't want to stop then. Had I been still only 600 or 700 in the world at that point, maybe I would have said it was too much, but I wanted to push for the dream of trying to play at Wimbledon again.
"It was great fun travelling the world with Scott, sharing Airbnb's in Sunderland with him. It's not glamorous at times and you have to accept that, but there were also some fantastic moments as we came back from match points down and won tight match tie-breaks.
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"Now I'm aiming to take that next step and when I have come up against the top doubles guys, I feel like I've been quite close with them. There is not a lot of improvement I need to make to be with them and I believe I can do it.
"That said, you can play players who are 300 or 400 in the world and they are very good as well, so we are talking about fine margins here.
"The level on the ITF Tour is fantastic and tournaments are so well organised, so you have no excuses to go out there and perform.
"Sometimes the crowds are not great and you have to get used to that, but you have a chance to win matches, climb the rankings and hopefully have experiences like I had at Wimbledon this summer."
"I have lived the dream again by playing Wimbledon and I don't want to stop there"
His run of title-winning success on the ITF World Tennis Tour took him into the Top 100 of the ATP Rankings earlier this year and allowed him to achieve his goal of playing in the main draw at Wimbledon in July alongside partner Jay Clarke.
The duo could not have had a tougher opening match - they fell in straight sets to Aussie duo Jordan Thompson and Max Purcell, who went on to reach the Wimbledon final.
Despite that disappointment, Willis looks back on his two-year odyssey and a return to Wimbledon with pride.
"I have lived the dream again by playing Wimbledon and I don't want to stop there," he added.
"Now it's about trying to play in the other Grand Slams next year and that means making the top 70 in the world. It doesn't sound much making up another 25 places in the rankings, but it is a hell of a lot of points when you get to this level.
"That is a goal of mine. If I keep improving, that is a target and if I don't make that, it will be to re-evaluate. I just want to keep playing tennis as long as I can. I just love playing tennis."
Willis is a shining example of what can be achieved on the ITF World Tennis Tour, where extraordinary goals can be achieved by players at either end of their professional careers.