Marcus Willis caused a majot upset in main draw at the Aegon GB Pro-Series Shrewsbury as he comprehensively beat second seed Axel Michon of France 6-2, 6-2. The french man is currently ranked some 300 places above Willis in the world rankings.
The opening exchanges saw two very long games result in two breaks of serves, but from 2-2 Willis reeled off the next four games to take the set 6-2. The 22 year-old from Reading was equally impressive taking the second set by the same score.
After the match, Willis commented: “I was really consistent today and felt I got my tactics spot on. We had a close first few games which I played well in and served well on the big points. Unusually I like playing fellow lefties, and I am really pleased with the win.”
After this boost Marcus proceeded to overcome 4 british players on his way to reach his 3rd Final of the year.
Here he met Dan Evans and in front of a crowd of 140+ spectators, Evans and Willis, who have played each other seven times before in their professional careers, battled until the bitter end resulting in no breaks of serve throughout the whole match, with both set’s being decided on a tie-break.
The first set tie-break saw Evans gain the initiative claiming it 7-3, whilst from 2-1 in the second set tie-break the number third seed won five points in a row to secure the title with a 7-6(3), 7-6(1) win.
With this results the resurgent Willis is getting close to his career high world ranking of 563 (which he held in 2010).