**Unknown Birkenhead Tennis Player Becomes Crucial Part of Wimbledon — While Earning Pennies on the Pro Circuit**
As the world focuses on Carlos Alcaraz’s campaign for a third Wimbledon crown, an English player from Birkenhead, Adam Jones, has quietly played a pivotal role in the Spaniard’s preparations — despite facing the financial hardships so common among lower-ranked professionals.
Adam Jones, 27, may not be recognised among the sport’s glitterati, but his work at Wimbledon is essential. Tasked with mimicking the playing styles of top competitors’ opponents, Jones provides elite players like Alcaraz an invaluable opportunity to refine their tactics before their crucial matches.
This year, Jones has also found himself hitting balls with household names such as Novak Djokovic, rising star Amanda Anisimova, and Britain’s own Emma Raducanu. His ability to adapt and replicate the distinct techniques of rivals makes him a sought-after practice partner at major tournaments.
Yet, the reality of life on tennis’s lower rungs is starkly different from the luxury associated with grand slams. Currently ranked 1,513th in the world in singles and 619th in doubles, Jones makes most of his living not from the main draw spotlight but through the grind of the ITF Futures Tour — the sport’s entry-level professional circuit.
Speaking to BBC Sport about his unconventional role, Jones admitted, “It’s a great gig and a fun way to make some money. For Carlos, I had to pretend to be Jan-Lennard Struff, and that meant standing a metre inside the baseline and firing serves as hard as I could.”
However, away from the lush lawns of the All England Club, Jones’s challenges are typical of many players outside the top 100. He recalled resorting to sleeping in a tent on a Portuguese golf course or sharing crowded dormitories, unable to afford hotel rooms that often cost four times the small sums he earned from early round defeats.
“The Futures tour is absolutely brutal financially,” Jones confessed. “If you lose in qualifiers, you get nothing. Just recently, I won £27 after bowing out early in singles and then again in doubles. Meanwhile, hotel prices start from £110 a night — so you’re losing money each week.” He highlighted the misconception that all professional tennis players live privileged lives just for being part of global tournaments, when in fact, the vast majority are striving just to break even.
While Wimbledon reportedly offers its hitting partners around £120 per day, plus benefits such as meals and use of club facilities, these perks are only available during the brief two-week window of the Championships. For the rest of the year, the financial rewards remain slim.
Jones’s pathway into his current role began in 2022, when he first joined Wimbledon as a hitting partner. So captivated by the experience, he returned the following year, and by 2024 had even secured a full-time position training with Croatia’s Donna Vekic throughout the tournament, witnessing her journey to the semi-finals.
Despite mingling with some of the sport’s biggest stars and enjoying front-row access to major events, Jones admitted he still holds a certain nostalgia for the less glamorous Futures circuit. “It’s funny. Even when I was travelling with top players, staying in luxurious hotels and using world-class facilities, I often found myself missing the chaos and challenge of Futures events. You’ve got to remember where you came from and respect the grind,” he said.
Now based in California with his girlfriend, Jones is preparing for another spell competing in Futures tournaments in the United States, with upcoming matches in Illinois on the horizon. Yet, his ambitions remain ambitious: “Next year, I want to be back at Wimbledon — but this time, I’d like to be playing doubles,” he revealed, hoping to step from behind the practice curtain and onto one of tennis’s most revered stages.
Jones’s journey underscores both the glamour and the grind of the professional tennis world, where only a small elite reap rich rewards while hundreds more keep the show running behind the scenes — earning a fraction for their essential contributions.