Putting aside sentimentality and ignoring the carnival-like atmosphere, Federer won the first seven games and sailed to a 6-0, 6-3, 6-4 victory in a second-round match played under the Centre Court roof on another rainy day at the All England Club.
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“Willis, who makes his living coaching children and senior citizens at a rowing club in the English midlands, has provided the feelgood factor of a wet, cold week in south-west London”.
Willis, who nearly quit to take up coaching and had to battle through six rounds of qualifying, stunned Lithuania’s Ricardas Berankis, ranked 718 places above him, on Monday.
The 62-year-old electrician from Birmingham added: “For Dan and Marcus it’s been a insane few days”.
“I’m not here for money”. It’s an added bonus, it’s great. I can clear my debts. “He’s one of the best players ever to play the sport, so it’s hard but I’ve got to put that to the back of my mind and give it a good go”.
He underwent surgery for the first time in his career in February after damaging his knee running his daughters a bath and then missed a grand slam for the first time since 1999 when he sat out the French Open following back trouble. He looked like he wanted to get off the court as quickly as he could, go to the changing room and then go back to Lithuania.
“I always knew it was going to be a completely different match than anything I have played on Centre Court”, he said. It’s a nice thing to happen after I beat Dolgopolov. Should be inspiration for a lot of people. “So that’s exciting for me if I’m playing like this”.
Evans, a good friend of Willis, had beaten Jan-Lennard Struff on Monday to continue a fine year in which he has risen more than 650 places to number 91 in the world rankings. But it took a few knocks at the door. “I thought it was cool that he got out first because it’s his moment, in my opinion”. If I was playing well and competing with Roger for a couple of sets I was doing well.
Federer told Wimbledon.com’s “If” series of videos that he would like Matt Damon to play him if ever there was a film made of his life.
One particular highlight was a sublime lob over Federer for a victor he will remember for the rest of his life. The whole experience was incredible.
But Evans showed in his 7-6 (8/6) 6-4 6-1 dismissal of Dolgopolov just how serious he is about his tennis these days and he views a likely Centre Court date with Federer rather differently to his countryman. I would expect him to win fairly comfortably. His reward was spending 84 minutes trading blows with a seven-time Wimbledon champion and, given the massive gulf in class, Willis acquitted himself better than most expected.
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“What I like about his game is he reads it well”. “I was thinking this is definitely one of the matches I’ll remember”.
