When 29-year-old Billy Harris makes his Grand Slam debut at Wimbledon on Tuesday, he will reflect on his three-and-a-half-year journey travelling around Europe and sleeping in a Ford Transit van to play in the lowest-tier tournaments in professional tennis.

The Brit received a wildcard into the main draw and will come in on form after reaching the quarter-final at Queen’s and the semis in Eastbourne. But the top ATP events are still new to Harris, who remembers protecting himself with a baseball bat and driving from Spain to Poland to compete on the ITF Futures circuit.

Harris is now being carted around in luxury Range Rovers and staying in upmarket hotels, a far cry from the mattress he used to sleep on in the back of his van.

“It wasn’t even a campervan. It was a Ford Transit van with a bed in the back,” Harris said in Eastbourne, recalling his exploits that began in 2015. The van has long since given in to the thousands of miles it racked up across Europe.

The Isle of Man-born tennis player explained: “My dad used it for a year after I stopped using it, the engine just blew up. My dad ran it into the ground basically. How many miles did we do? I can’t remember but it was a lot. Quite a few laps around Europe. Dover to Calais quite a few times.

“It was good. For the Futures there used to be 12 in a row in Belgium, I would go round, then Spain for a few in a row. Poland for nine in a row for example. It taught me a bit of resilience. You cannot just drive home when you are out there. You cannot fly home. Probably played more weeks in a row than most people would. But it’s taught me to keep going, week to week, and the better weeks would come.”

His longest journey? “I cannot remember the exact number of miles but it was the South of Spain to Warsaw, Poland. I had to stop for a sleep as it was that far. I stopped in the Switzerland mountains. I mean in Europe they are pretty good with campers. Spain, France, Holland, no one really bats an eyelid. Mine didn’t really look like a big campervan. It looked like a normal van and you could get away with parking anywhere, a town centre or in front of cathedrals.”

Although Harris used to “sleep like a baby in the van”, he had to make sure he was equipped when some chancers attempted to open the doors at night. “A few people tried the van doors at night. But nothing major. I had my protection under my bed. Just a big bat. So I felt alright,” he laughed.

“The best thing about having the wheels, if the tournament was over, I could just drive to a town nearby or the beach or wherever. That was the best thing about it. The freedom of just going where I wanted to.”

After getting a wildcard into Wimbledon, Harris feels his three-and-a-half years on the road have paid off. “I will definitely look at where I have come from, the journey I have been on to get to this point. Come match day I will be focusing on the match. You have to take it as another match even though it’s such a big occasion for me,” he said of his upcoming Grand Slam debut.

“It’s worth it already. Getting to the top 150. I want to break into the top 100. That is the next goal. When I was struggling to break the top 600 for three, four years, where I am now is a long way out of sight.”