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

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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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