Isle of Man tennis Billy Harris looks ahead to making his senior Great Britain debut at next week's Davis Cup in Manchester

Tindle News

Isle of Man tennis Billy Harris looks ahead to making his senior Great Britain debut at next week's Davis Cup in Manchester.

Transcript

00:00And Billy, welcome back to the Isle of Man first of all and just tell me what it's like being home.

00:04Yeah, it's great to be home. I haven't been home for a while so obviously I've got a busy schedule

00:09playing pretty much non-stop through the year so it's great to have a few days back here and

00:16see everyone and take in the Isle of Man. It's always nice to come back.

00:21And the big thing people will talk about is Wimbledon, obviously you've played there.

00:25How was that experience?

00:26Yeah, it was amazing to play there. I mean, I played the qualifying last year and then to play

00:32the main draw this year for the first time was a great experience and yeah, I had a few Manx fans

00:37down there, my family and great atmosphere and yeah, hope to be back again.

00:43And you mentioned your family. Your dad is actually your coach, isn't he? What's that

00:46like to have someone so special and close to you to be your coach as well? What's that like?

00:50Yeah, it's good. He's a good support on the road.

00:53He got me into the sport when we moved to the Isle of Man at a very young age and started off

01:01going around Castletown Tennis Club and Albany Tennis Club pretty much every day of the week so

01:08it's good to have him still travelling with me and helping me.

01:12Did you ever think when you were playing at Castletown, Albany, that you'd ever get to

01:15Wimbledon or anything like that? Did you dream of it?

01:18Yeah, definitely dreamed of it but it's a long road to get there and I had a few years where

01:25I thought maybe it wouldn't happen where I was kind of stuck at a ranking where

01:29I wouldn't be able to reach Wimbledon and then the last few years been a lot better and

01:34managed to climb my way up.

01:36And one story I think our readers really enjoyed was the van,

01:38the bit about the van and you going around in this little small van

01:41and now you've gone to Wimbledon. Tell us a bit about that.

01:44Yeah, so when I started playing professional tournaments, I started off in my van,

01:49put a bed in the back, just stringing a machine, cooking out the back of it,

01:54travelling around Europe, did that for a good three, three and a half years and then

02:01yeah, managed to start getting in some bigger tournaments and

02:05had to travel further afield so I left the van behind then.

02:08And you're going to be playing with a few children while you're on the Isle of Man,

02:11that'll be really nice for them. What would you say to anyone encouraging,

02:14to encourage young kids maybe in the Isle of Man if there is a chance?

02:18Yeah, it's nice to come back and see what's going on with the junior programme and

02:24there's a few good players on the rise so it'll be good to see their progress and see if I can

02:29help them and give them a bit of advice and yeah, pass on what I've learnt and

02:35pass it on to the next generation on the Isle of Man.

02:38And just finally, what can we expect from you now in the future?

02:40Is there anything you're looking forward to, anything you've got planned?

02:43I mean, next week I'm playing the Davis Cup in Manchester so that's the first time

02:47representing Great Britain as a senior player so that'll be a special one and then after that

02:53I'm off to China and then back to Europe for some more tournaments.

02:58Well, congrats so far Billy and good luck, we'll be following you closely.

03:01Thanks very much.

03:02Cheers mate.

Category

Transcript

Be the first to comment

Recommended