• 2 months ago
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.

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