Marcus Willis

Early and personal life

Willis began playing tennis at the age of 9. His mother is a primary school teacher 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. Currently, they are expecting their first child. Willis teaches at Downe House an independent girls school.

Junior career

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.

Junior Slam results – Singles:

Australian Open: A (—)
French Open: 2R (2008)
Wimbledon: 3R (2007, 2008)
US Open: 2R (2008)

Junior Slam results – Doubles:

Australian Open: A (—)
French Open: 1R (2008)
Wimbledon: 2R (2007)
US Open: 2R (2008)

2015

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

2016

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 no 772 by the start of Wimbledon.

Willis won six matches to qualify for the main draw of 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 2nd tournament after Wimbledon was a 10K tournament in Kuwait which he won.

Marcus Willis played on the touchtennis World Tour for 5 years between 2010 and 2015 and still plays exhibition matches from time to time.