British Wimbledon star plotting massive upset after heartbreaking family tragedy | Tennis | Sport
Felix Gill opened up on his parents’ respective battles with cancer (Image: Getty)
British wildcard Felix Gill will be hoping to cause a big upset when he faces No. 23 seed Rafael Jodar on his Wimbledon debut on Monday. The 24-year-old, who spent some time in Spain himself, has followed Jodar’s rise up the rankings, from the Spaniard’s college tennis journey through to his French Open quarter-final run.
And he will have plenty of support when he steps out onto Court 3 on Monday morning, with his loved ones following him throughout the grass season after what has been a challenging few years for the Gill family.
Both of Gill’s parents were diagnosed with cancer a few years ago. His mum, Elizabeth, received her leukaemia diagnosis a year before his father, Matthew’s own battle with blood cancer. Gill’s father passed away in May 2022, shortly before he played doubles at Wimbledon. He was still able to see the world No. 220 in action at the junior event here in 2019, when Elizabeth couldn’t.
“My mum and dad were ill at the same time, so my mum had leukaemia. They were a year apart of when they were diagnosed, so there was a lot of trips to the QE in Birmingham during those times,” the Redditch native explained.
“Looking back is amazing how difficult it was and that I was able to be okay during those times and loads of help from friends, family friends, uncles, just to drive me to the tennis club and 40 minutes away in Coventry or Birmingham. So yeah, no loads of help from those guys and yeah, I can’t thank everyone around me who has helped [enough]. My mum’s okay now, yeah. She’s been okay for the last four or five years, she’s a trooper.”
Gill’s father tragically passed away just weeks before he made his doubles debut at the All England Club in 2022, teaming up with Arthur Fery to win a round. “Sadly, he passed away in May, so two months before,” the British No. 11 recalled.
Felix Gill says his dad would be ‘over the moon’ to know he received a Wimbledon wildcard (Image: Getty)
“I really wanted to just stay on the horse really and continue through the grass season because it would kind of bring me some happiness in such a sad moment. So no, he wasn’t there, but he was probably there in spirit with my mum and my brother and stuff.”
He still has happy memories in SW19 with his dad. They watched Novak Djokovic beat Roger Federer in the final more than a decade ago after getting lucky Centre Court tickets through the ballot, and Matthew came to the boys’ singles event seven years ago.
And Gill says his dad – who was chairman of the Redditch Tennis Club and threw himself into the sport when his son started playing as a child – would be “over the moon” to know he had received a main-draw singles wildcard this year. “He always wanted his children to be better than him, so… I don’t know, but he’d be so happy,” he said.
The world No. 220, who recently reached the second round of the Birmingham and Nottingham Challengers, first started playing tennis around the age of three in Redditch. He soon progressed to train at other centres and moved to Spain shortly after his father passed away.
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“I headed off to Spain, down in the Valencia region, just to pursue a different training style and see what they had to offer because the Spanish churn out so many players over the years. So we thought that would suit my game. I really enjoyed my time out there at GTennis,” Gill explained.
He will now face one of those talented Spaniards in teenage sensation Jodar, who took the tennis world by storm during the clay season when he went 19-4 in matches. His run included the Marrakech title, French Open semis, and two Masters 1000 quarter-finals.
Gill already knew of Jodar before his breakthrough, and said: “We were at a few tournaments together, then he went off to college, so I didn’t see him for a bit, and obviously he’s been smashing the tour. During his college career, he was winning Challengers and Futures, so you always kind of kept an eye on him on those tours, but to break through the ATP Tour like he did – not many people have done that really.”
But the 19-year-old star has never played a tour-level match on grass and withdrew from recent events in Queen’s and Eastbourne, so Gill will like his chances of causing a big upset.
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