FORMER Wokingham schoolboy Marcus Willis produced a huge shock to beat Ricardas Berankis, a man ranked over 700 places higher than him, in a dream Wimbledon debut.
Willis, who attended The Forest School in Winnersh, almost quit tennis last year after struggling for form, only for his girlfriend to persuade him to carry on.
And the British number 23 will certainly be grateful now as the world number 772 won six qualifying matches just to get to Wimbledon and will now face Roger Federer later this week after a straight sets win (6-3 6-3 6-4) win over Berankis.
It also boosts his payday from this tournament to £50,000, having earned barely £250 the rest of the year.
Willis, 25, got off to a dream start in his Grand Slam debut, breaking the serve of world number 53 Berankis in the very first game.
He then followed it up with a superb passing running forehand to hold and sealed the opening set 6-3 with another break.
Nicknamed ‘Willbomb’, the Slough-born man had a raucous crowd on his side on Court 17 and appeared to be loving every minute of it with the occasion seemingly not affecting him.
Big-serving Willis’ ace count continued to rise (14 in the end) as Berankis, who reached round two of Wimbledon last year, struggled to create many chances to break.
And that proved costly when the Englishman got a break of his own, to love, to move 3-1 up in the second set only for Berankis to quickly level the set after breaking in a mammoth fifth game which went to deuce 15 times.
But Willis, who combined his power play with some brilliant deft pick-ups and drop-shots, broke again to go 5-3 up before clinching the set 6-3 again.
The third set followed a similar pattern as Willis refused to let his serve go easily, battling hard to level at 1-1 before the key break to move 3-2 ahead.
Berankis will feel he should have broken back in game eight as he missed five break points to level at 4-4 but Willis eventually held to go one away from victory.
And, in his first opportunity to serve for the match, Willis made no mistake with two brilliant winners to help him to bring up two match points and he needed no second invitation to seal a fabulous win.
Willis is now likely to appear on a show court to face seven-time Wimbledon champion Federer in round two after the Swiss star overcame world number 52 Guido Pella.
