LONDON: Marcus Willis who briefly captured the headlines at Wimbledon last year is praying he will be given a wild card for this year's renewal, he told Press Association Sport on Monday.
The 26-year-old Englishman made a mockery of his world ranking of 772 to come through qualifying and then set up a second round meeting with Swiss master Roger Federer on Centre Court -- which he lost in straight sets.
Willis -- who has since married his girlfriend Jenny who was the person who convinced him to carry on plugging away with tennis resulting in the fairytale moment at Wimbledon -- said he had thoroughly enjoyed himself despite the loss to Federer.
"It felt like I was on court for about five minutes," said Willis of his unlikely appearance on Centre Court.
"Time flies by when you're having fun -- or being beaten up. It's crazy the more you think about it."
Willis, who now has a daughter Martha with Jenny, said he hoped the Wimbledon organisers would recall the media attention he garnered last year when they came to name the wild cards on June 20th.
"I'm not confident but hopeful," he said.
"I'd really appreciate that. It was a big story last year, the media attention is going to be big, so they might give me one.
"I genuinely think I can win some matches. It would bring back some memories, which would be sweet. If not, I'll try and make my way through qualies again."
Willis, who but for a player withdrawing from the pre-qualifying tournament for Wimbledon wouldn't have got his chance, said he had not held high hopes of even reaching the qualifying tournament.
However, three victories earned him a wild card into qualifying proper, where he overcame Yuichi Sugita, Andrey Rublev and Daniil Medvedev -- all ranked hundreds of places higher.
"I wasn't expecting anything because I hadn't hit a ball on grass," recalled Willis, whose exploits had other side effects with his wedding day featured in society magazine 'Hello'.
"I was hoping to pre-qualify but I had a tough draw there as well so I did really well to get through that. Each match was just a bonus, it was awesome.
"I didn't think I was going to win my last round of qualifying. I had a horrible draw, so I was just pleasantly surprised every time I won.
"Once I qualified and I came off that court and there were 200 people with microphones, that's when I realised, 'Oh, I've done something here'. And then it was just mental."