He lost 0-6, 3-6, 4-6, and the experience was wondrous beyond his wildest imaginings.

His second round opponent? Swiss fellow. Roger Federer – was that the name? No doubt he must have been daunted – Federer, that is – facing a player who had never previously lost a Grand Slam main draw match, who was playing in front of an adoring home crowd. Yet Federer seemed to cope, somehow.

Just to recap that Willis career record: his opening round win here over world No.54 Ricardas Berankis was the first Tour-level match he had ever played, and made him the lowest-ranked qualifier to reach the second round at any Grand Slam in the last 27 years – longer than this 25-year-old’s entire lifetime.

The odyssey began earlier this month, when he was the very last direct acceptance into the LTA Wimbledon wild card play-offs – and won it, earning himself a place in qualifying. Miraculously he came through that too, and all superlatives failed when he beat Berankis to set up this second round match against…what was the name again?

Just to emphasise – the Briton’s 2016 prize money as of this current moment is £50,220, of which £50,000 has been earned at The Championships.

“Federer is terrified!” sang Willis’s knot of mates in the crowd, with possibly questionable accuracy, as their man lost the first set 6-0. Yet it is important to acknowledge Willis as a professional player, rather than patronising him as some kind of instant national pet.

Bear in mind that if any of us, who loll around in armchairs making loud judgments on the game, ever faced him across a net, he would make very tiny mincemeat of us all.

And in that first set he really had his moments – a 116mph ace, for example, to save a break point, which he celebrated with arms outstretched overhead.

But those opening 29 minutes really galloped by, and there were worried murmurs among experienced observers as to whether any of them had ever witnessed a triple bagel. 

The whispers were banished in the second set when – glory – he got on the scoreboard and began showing good hands, along with some of that talent which might have made him a better player if had dedicated himself in the way that is necessary.

By the end Willis had matched Federer ace for ace at 9 apiece, having shown what the Swiss called “great-shot making” to make the scoreboard thoroughly respectable.

A fairytale story, some called it, before the match began, and it is impossible not to smile at its telling. Willis leaves Wimbledon 2016 with seven victories to his name – enough to win The Championship, for some. He achieved not that, but something else: the sound made by the crowd when the two players shook hands at the net was the very definition of joy, and at a strange old time in British national history, a small chapter of tennis life made millions of people happy.

Uniquely, it was the vanquished rather than the victor who walked back into the middle of the court to acknowledge the crowd’s salute. Tears were very near for Willis at that moment, and coincidentally plenty of us courtside found we too were troubled by something in our eyes. Around these parts, there will be no more rip-roaring tale than the Fable of Marcus Willis for a very long time to come.