One of the stories of the year in all of sports came in February when Matija Pecotic, the 33-year-old Director of Capital Markets for a real estate investment company, stunned former Top 10 star Jack Sock at the Delray Beach Open. The Croatian took the tennis world by storm after surging from qualifying, where he was an alternate, to the second round of the main draw.
Following from across the Atlantic Ocean was Marcus Willis, tennis’ original Hollywood script writer, who is making a comeback in doubles. In 2016, the lefty battled through Wimbledon pre-qualifying and then defeated Andrey Rublev and Daniil Medvedev in qualifying to reach the main draw. After the World No. 772 stunned Ricardas Berankis in the first round, Willis played Roger Federer on centre court, losing in straight sets.
“I was just happy. It’s a weird thing. I was just happy for the guy more than anything. It’s nice in sport, in tennis, when stuff like this happens. A lot of guys get to 200 and don’t have that break,” Willis told ATPTour.com of Pecotic. “His life is really interesting right now.”
Pecotic climbed as high as No. 206 in the Pepperstone ATP Rankings in 2015. But after suffering from a staph infection, attending Harvard Business School and the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, he traded hopes of a full-time career for a desk at the office. Willis is one of few people who can understand the whirlwind the Croatian went through in Delray Beach.
“He got significantly higher than I did in the singles rankings. So in a way, it’s not that I didn’t deserve it because I had the ability, but he really deserved that. He got lucky because he got in, but I saw that story and it took me back a little bit,” Willis said. “I think you can be misled sometimes. Certainly with my story… a lot of people sort of got the impression that I was just a random tennis coach who decided to sign up for Wimbledon one day.