Wimbledon sensation Marcus Willis is ending his career
The Briton Marcus Willis , who showed up completely surprisingly at Wimbledon in 2016 and won a round, ended his career.
by Florian Goosmann
last edit: Mar 04, 2021, 12:22 pm
It was one of the craziest stories in world tennis in recent years: In the summer of 2016, the Briton Marcus Willis played the match of his life on Center Court against Roger Federer. The journey there? A completely crazy one. Willis had to survive six matches to get into the main draw at Wimbledon, he had to qualify for the qualification at all. And won, and won, and won ... in the final game for a place in the All England Club, by the way, against a certain Daniil Medvedev.
Willis almost never went to Wimbledon: at the beginning of the year he had wanted to take a coaching job in Philadelphia, but then stayed in England thanks to his girlfriend . In Wimbledon he won his first round match against Ricardo Berankis, the reward: a second round meeting with Roger Federer on Center Court. Willis lost 6-0, 6-3 and 4-6, but sold well. And better than expected from a number 772 in the world.
Marcus Willis: The "cartman" of tennis
In addition to the Cinderella material , a video also appeared during this time that showed an overweight Willis performing a Challenger appearance - at the beginning of the third movement he ordered a sweet drink and a Snickers and from now on he made up for his nickname: "Cartman", according to the well-fed member of the South Park series.
"Tennis, it was an amazing journey"
However, the Wimbledon run gave Willis only limited hope of advancing to the top of the world. Although he made it into the top 400 in the world again in 2017, place 322 in 2014 remained his best ranking. At Wimbledon 2017 he lost in the third round of qualification, his last match was from 2018.
"Tennis, it was an amazing journey," he began his resignation tweet. He made more mistakes than he can remember, on and off the pitch, but "I'm beaming with pride about my way into the Wimbledon main draw in the craziest and most difficult way". Resigning is not an easy decision, "but it's 100 percent the right one. It's time to say game, set and match." He played against the best player of all time on the best court in the world's biggest tournament, "and worked tirelessly to make this dream a reality."
Next? He will do his trainer education and continue to publish his podcast "What you talking about Willis".