The 29-year-old Billy Harris defeated Frenchman Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard 6-4, 7-5 to reach his first ATP Tour quarterfinal at the Queens Club Championship. His campaign has been a fairy tale run, as he has spent most of his career on the ITF Tour, the tier below the ATP.
Billy Harris had come off of a hard-fought win against Argentina's No. 1 player, Tomas Martin Etcheverry, a match that went the full 3 sets, 6-4, 3-6, 6-3. He carried that momentum into todays match, breaking the Frenchman's powerful serve at 5-5 to serve for the set. "I came into this match knowing that it was going to be very tough with his serve," Harris said. He added, "in the first hour, I was thinking this serve needs to slow down."
It was a big day for British tennis as earlier in the day, Jack Draper, Britain's No. 1 player pulled off a major upset against Carlos Alcaraz. When asked about this, Harris said, "Amazing from Jack, he is the future of British tennis, and he is leading the way."
Harris was ranked outside of the world's top 300 as recently as October. He has quickly climbed up the rankings, and this Monday, will move inside the top 150. The Brit will make his Grand Slam debut at Wimbledon this July with the wildcard he received to enter the main draw.
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