‘Journeyman’ Harris’s incredible sojourn at the Bengaluru Open continues

Billy Harris, a 30-year-old journeyman tennis player, defies the odds to secure a spot in the Bengaluru Open quarterfinals.

Billy Harris is quite the journeyman. He is 30 years old, has never entered the ATP top-100 and once travelled around Europe to play ITF Futures tournaments in his own Ford Transit van.

His entry into the ongoing Bengaluru Open main draw was only mildly less dramatic. Harris is the highest-ranked player on site at 110 but having not signed up for the tournament initially, he had to wind his way up from the qualifying rounds where he was a last-minute on-site alternate entry.

He then lost in the final round of the qualifying only for lady luck to smile again as he secured a main draw berth because Canadian Alexis Galarneau (No. 162) pulled out. The on-site alternate and the lucky-loser spots are both decided on the basis of rankings, and in that Harris had no match.

On Wednesday at the KSLTA courts here, Harris remained unrivalled on the glazed blue acrylic too, beating Czech Republic’s Marek Gengel 6-4, 6-3 to enter the quarterfinals in rousing fashion.

In his demeanour, the Brit seems to have a typically stiff upper lip, and he showed little to no emotion while dispatching his opponent. After the contest, he appeared with an ice-strapping on his right wrist but played down that too.

However, under the harsh afternoon sun, Harris’ game found full expression. He was relentless in his approach and ruthless in his shot-making — grass is after all his favourite surface — as he won 86% of his first-serve points, didn’t face a single break-point and remained unruffled even when Gengel tried an under-arm serve deep in the second set.

“I thought I played a pretty solid match,” Harris said later. “I served well and got the breaks of serve that I needed in both sets.