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Willis given Wimbledon qualifying wildcard after last year's exploits

  • Posted: Jun 21, 2017

Britain’s Marcus Willis has been awarded a wildcard into qualifying for Wimbledon after his fairytale run at last year’s tournament.

Willis won six matches to qualify last year, before beating a top-100 player in the first round and losing to Roger Federer on Centre Court in the second.

He will definitely be at Wimbledon again this year as he has received a wildcard for the doubles.

Seven Britons have been given wildcards for the singles main draws.

They are Naomi Broady, Heather Watson, Laura Robson, Katie Boulter in the women’s draw, plus Brydan Klein, Cameron Norrie and James Ward in the men’s competition.

All are ranked inside the world’s top 250 with the exception of Ward, who has spent much of the last year on the sidelines with a knee injury.

Wimbledon runs from Monday, 3 July to Sunday, 16 July.

German Tommy Haas, a Wimbledon semi-finalist in 2009, has also been given a wildcard, along with Canadian Denis Shapovalov in the men’s draw.

Shapovalov, 18, was defaulted in a Davis Cup match against Kyle Edmund in February after hitting a ball in frustration that fractured umpire Arnaud Gabas’s eye socket.

He beat Edmund at the Aegon Championships in London on Monday at Queen’s Club.

Analysis

BBC tennis correspondent Russell Fuller

“Willbomb’s on fire .. Federer is terrified” was one of the more unusual chants that could be heard on Centre Court last year as Willis played the seven-time champion in the second round.

Willis had been playing mostly in the French and German leagues and was ranked 772 in the world prior to the Championships. He has played sparingly in the past 12 months, and, now ranked 387, has won just under £3,000 on the Futures circuit so far this year.

Many other British players will have a chance to compete in qualifying – including the 18-year-olds Jay Clarke and Katie Swan and 19-year-old Gabriella Taylor.

Taylor spent four days in intensive care after losing her girls’ quarter-final match last year, and Scotland Yard later investigated claims that she had been poisoned.

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'Queen's defeat means more practice and Peppa Pig'

  • Posted: Jun 21, 2017
2017 Aegon Championships
Venue: Queen’s Club, London Dates: 19-25 June
Coverage: Comprehensive live coverage on BBC One, BBC Two, Red Button, Connected TV and online daily

Losing in the first round at Queen’s Club doesn’t mean I can’t go on and do well at Wimbledon. It just means I’ve got a lot of work to do.

I knew before the tournament that I still have some way to go if I’m going to get up to the level where I challenge for the biggest titles, but I certainly expected more from myself.

I’m not the only player to suffer a surprise on the grass – Roger Federer lost in the first round in Stuttgart, and Stan Wawrinka and Milos Raonic also lost at Queen’s on Tuesday.

Grass is a very different surface and can take time to adjust to, but I had plenty of time on the courts in the week before and was practising well, so no excuses there.

Conditions at Queen’s might be playing slightly quicker than usual because of how warm it’s been, so the court’s a bit drier, which speeds it up. Again, I have enough experience to handle that.

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The quality of the guys across the net has a lot to do with it.

I saw a bit of Thanasi Kokkinakis against Raonic, and he played great, some really good stuff when he was behind in the games. Feliciano Lopez is a very good grass-court player and played extremely well against Wawrinka.

And sometimes it’s just coincidence. In an individual sport these results can happen.

‘Three or four hours is enough to prepare’

I found out that I was playing Jordan Thompson a few hours before the match, when I finished practising and saw on my phone that he had replaced Aljaz Bedene, who was injured.

At a Grand Slam, I will usually I talk about the next match with my team the night before, while at other events, when you play day after day, we tend to chat an hour and a half before the match.

That wasn’t the case on Tuesday. I hadn’t gone through any of my pre-match game plan with the team, but online you can get plenty of footage, so they found a little bit of him playing and I had a look on a tablet.

Three or four hours is still enough time to get ready for a different opponent; it can often be a lot shorter.

When it came down to it, he just played better than me.

He served well, I didn’t return the first serve well enough, and my decision-making and movement on the grass can get better.

‘Fewer matches means more practice’

First-round defeats haven’t happened loads during my career at Queen’s Club, but they have happened.

I lost to Nicolas Mahut in 2012 and used the extra time to play a couple of exhibition matches, and then reached my first final at Wimbledon.

Winning a tournament is great and you feel good afterwards, but you can also sometimes think that your game is in a good place and maybe become a little bit more relaxed in that week beforehand.

Now, there is clearly a lot of work required. I need to get myself out there on the practice court.

There will be a slight change of plans and each day becomes extremely important, because I just don’t have the matches behind me. I’ll need to put in a good 10 or 12 days of hard work.

Fewer matches means more practice, so it won’t change my home life too much in the build-up to Wimbledon.

My daughter Sophia sleeps pretty much from 6.30pm most days and I leave to practise pretty early, then I’m not back until quite late.

I’m very thankful she sleeps in the evenings – it’s a good thing – but it does mean I don’t get to see her quite as much.

Hopefully we’ll get the chance to catch a bit of Peppa Pig somewhere along the line.

Andy Murray was talking to BBC Sport’s Piers Newbery

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Federer Marks Milestone To Begin Halle Campaign

  • Posted: Jun 20, 2017

Federer Marks Milestone To Begin Halle Campaign

Jun202017

Swiss champion next faces Mischa Zverev

Roger Federer added another milestone to his historic career on Tuesday, celebrating his 1,100th match win to start his Gerry Weber Open campaign in Halle. The eight-time champion breezed past lucky loser Yuichi Sugita of Japan 6-3, 6-1 in 52 minutes to move into the second round at the ATP World Tour 500 event.

The 35-year-old Federer rebounded nicely from his early exit last week at the MercedesCup in Stuttgart. Federer led by a set and a break and had a match point against longtime friend Tommy Haas but fell to the German 2-6, 7-6(8), 6-4.

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Against Sugita, Federer started smoothly and stayed aggressive. He hit his fourth ace to claim the opener in only 21 minutes. For the match, Federer won 90 per cent of his first-serve points (26/29).

The top seed improved to 20-2 on the season. He will next face the serve-and-volleying Mischa Zverev, who dismissed Slovakian qualifier Lukas Lacko 6-4, 6-4.

Zverev’s younger brother, #NextGenATP German Alexander Zverev, also cruised in his Halle opener. The World No. 12 saved all three break points faced and needed only 59 minutes to beat Italian Paolo Lorenzi 6-3, 6-2. Zverev reached the semi-finals at the Ricoh Open last week before losing to eventual titlist Gilles Muller.

Zverev will meet compatriot Philipp Kohlschreiber in the second round. The 33-year-old Kohlschreiber leads their FedEx ATP Head2Head series 2-0.

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Aegon Championships: Stan Wawrinka & Milos Raonic suffer upsets at Queen's

  • Posted: Jun 20, 2017
2017 Aegon Championships
Venue: Queen’s Club, London Dates: 19-25 June
Coverage: Comprehensive live coverage on BBC One, BBC Two, Red Button, Connected TV and online daily

Milos Raonic and Stan Wawrinka both lost in the first round of the Aegon Championships on a day of upsets at Queen’s Club.

Australian wildcard Thanasi Kokkinakis stunned Canadian third seed Raonic, last year’s runner-up, 7-6 (7-5) 7-6 (10-8).

Former finalist Feliciano Lopez of Spain then saw off Swiss second seed Wawrinka 7-6 (7-4) 7-5.

Five-time champion Andy Murray also lost to Australian Jordan Thompson.

Meanwhile, 18-time Grand Slam champion Roger Federer earned his first grass-court win of the year at Halle in Germany.

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Wawrinka lost in the first round for the second year running and now has a 4-5 career record at Queen’s Club.

Kokkinakis, 21, was playing only his fifth match of 2017 after missing 18 weeks with an abdominal strain.

The Australian, who was watched from courtside by close friend Nick Kyrgios, has struggled desperately with injuries.

He reached a career-high ranking of 69 two years ago but had shoulder surgery in December 2015 and suffered a pectoral injury after returning last August, before his abdominal strain this year.

“It means everything, this match. It’s huge for me,” said Kokkinakis, who saved eight break points in the first set and three set points in the second-set tie-break.

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“I’ve been out of the game for so long. I’m trying to look forward now – it’s been brutal.

“I’m trying to get myself going week by week. I think it was 22 months out of the game but I can’t wait to play my next game.”

Asked what lesson he would take from the defeat, Raonic said: “Don’t get caught too far behind the baseline, hit the damn ball, and move forward every chance you have.”

He added: “I will go into Wimbledon with a lot of confidence, because I have prepared really well.”

Federer earns first win of grass-court season

Seven-time Wimbledon champion Federer decided to miss the entire clay-court season in order to focus on the grass, returning with a defeat by German veteran Tommy Haas in Stuttgart last week.

But the 35-year-old responded with a 6-3 6-1 win against Japan’s Yuichi Sugita in the first round at Halle on Tuesday.

The Swiss top seed needed just 51 minutes to earn his 1,100th win on the ATP Tour.

“I had never played him. And playing against me, all are always very motivated,” said Federer, who won his 18th Slam at the Australian Open in January.

“That doesn’t make it easy, but I’m very satisfied. That was a very good start.”

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