All good things must end: Federer ousts Britain’s Willis
Or merely for the chance to emerge from the tunnel leading to the green grass there and hear the full-throated yells of nearly 15,000 standing, clapping spectators pulling for you?
Or, perhaps best of all, for the chance to look up at a guest box and see your parents, sister, brother and cousin leaping out of their seats, rejoicing, after you conjured up a beautifully curled lob that floated over the man considered by many to be the sport’s greatest player in history and landed in to win a 14-stroke exchange?
Marcus Willis, who lives at home with his parents and works as a tennis instructor at a club in central England, got to experience all of that and more Wednesday, and it didn’t cost the 25-year-old a dime.
[...] Willis earned the biggest paycheck of his career despite winding up with the sort of result everyone expected when someone ranked 772nd in the world somehow found himself across the net from the man who spent more weeks at No. 1 than anyone: a 6-0, 6-3, 6-4 victory for Federer in the second round at the All England Club.
Earlier, on another rain-filled day that left a dozen men still unable to complete their first-round matches, No. 1 Novak Djokovic — the two-time defending champion — won his 30th straight match at a major tournament, sweeping into the third round with a clinical 6-4, 6-3, 7-6 (5) victory over Adrian Mannarino.