Marcus Willis continues record run with 9th futures title of 2014, and the 20th since Marcus hooked up with manager Pharmacist Gary Lewis just 19 months ago.
Berkshire no1 Marcus Willis said Scotland's new teenage sensation 19 year old Jonny O'Mara was a pleasure to partner and he's a great talent with a bright future both on the singles & doubles court.
Marcus went on to say it was great lifting back to back Doubles titles with Jonny on his home turf defeating a tough Australian pair maverick Banes & Gavin van Peperzeel 7-6 ( 10-8 ) & 6-1 today at GB Newcastle futures on clay was no easy task .
Surely it's a only now a formality now that Berkshire no1 Marcus Willis breaks his own GB futures record of 11 pro futures titles in a single year ( 2013 ) that he currently shares with former GB no2 josh Goodall ( 2011). He's only 3 short of a new GB all time record with nearly 7 months still to go!
Gary said Marcus has now picked up back to back doubles titles with Jonny O 'Mara who has only recently turned 19 early signs that we may have another colin Fleming on our hands and he's no mean singles player either .I would like to thank Jonny for his support this week it's been very rewarding 2 weeks for both players.
Gary went on to say that's progress at A1 because we are developing a wider team of GB players that are collaborating with each other, helping each other which is all good for GB tennis .It’s also a practice that fits in nicely with our A1 Team work philosophy where there is no "I" in teamwork and you are expected to put something back in! It’s something that Marcus is keenly aware of and is always keen to demonstrate on his own initiative - in short Marcus is the archetypal team player to which we aspire.
Gary went onto say we have reached a huge milestone with Marcus winning 9 pro futures titles in just over 4 months & 12 finals in just 11 tournaments of 2014 but we are only 1/3 way through our annual tournament calendar so we are very pleased with the steady incremental progress.
Gary said It's also nice to share the doubles points around at futures with local SE based training partners Matt short & Jon O'Mara who we now plan to pair with at regularly while at GB futures while focusing on challengers in 2014/15 with higher ranked doubles partner Lewis burton .
This all means that Marcus & Lewis surely have a great chance of being rewarded with a Wimbledon MD Doubles WC at beginning of June.
We have been advised that the cut for the MD WC is CR 400 and we are certainly going to get close I guess it's could depend on whether a new GB record of 9 pro futures titles in just over 4 months catches the eyes of the all England selectors . The solitary outing to a French challenger saw the All GB Pair defeat a top 100 pair and narrowly missing reaching the final after a close 10-8 3rd set tie break in the SF .
Marcus will continue to demonstrate his versatility combining for 2 challengers with veteran doubles specialist Sean Thornley for next 2 weeks prior to an intensive training with bloc with head coach Matt smith on the quality grass at Surbiton LTC whilst simultaneously continuing to improve conditioning with Surbiton LTC fitness coach Chris Dawe. Sean Thornley is also an excellent coach and with a lot of success particularly in futures and we are keen to learn from his experience and success as a doubles specialist.
In terms of ATP world rankings Marcus Willis ended 2012 no895 doubles & no1012 singles and now only 16 months later when the recent ATP points are updated the Berkshire no1 will climb to ATP world no229 doubles & 325 singles tremendous climb that Gary expects will see Marcus climb into top 300 singles & top 200 doubles before the end of 2014.
Watch an interview with Marcus after his win here - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pw4P_82ctSU&list=PL6P9iGS4Ir9nVhF6jFXHmT7yghsuu6CmV&index=2