Alcaraz's warm-up partner won £27 at recent tournament and slept on golf course

Daily Mirror

2 days ago

Professional tennis player Adam Jones makes a living out of helping some of the game's biggest stars, from Carlos Alcaraz to Emma Raducanu, warm up before huge matches at Wimbledon
Carlos Alcaraz is one step away from landing his third Wimbledon title in a row, and becoming one of the game's immortals. However, the player he's been occasionally training with in between games is a little known Englishman - who has one of professional tennis' most intriguing jobs.
Twenty seven-year-old Adam Jones, a player in his own right, has the task of hitting balls with some of the game's biggest names, by mimicking the style of their next opponent as he looks to help sharpen them up ahead of their next match.
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Up and down the practice courts of Wimbledon, Jones has traded forehands with the likes of Alcaraz, Novak Djokovic, 2025 women's finalist Amanda Anisimova and Emma Raducanu. Jones is currently ranked 1,513th in the world in the singles and comes in at 619th in doubles.
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The Birkenhead-born star plays on the ITF Futures Tour, which is the lowest format in the sport. While it's a role that often goes unnoticed, given that Jones carries out his work away from the likes of Centre Court, he admits that he's just happy to be involved.
"It's a great gig and a fun way to earn some money," Jones told BBC Sport"Whoever they're playing you try to copy their style.
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"With Carlos, before he played Jan-Lennard Struff, who has a massive serve, I was standing a metre inside the baseline nuking serves."
Yet Jones' journey to trading backhands with icons of the game wasn't something he landed on easily. He has told how he once had to sleep in a small tent perched on a Portuguese golf course, and crash in dorms, as he couldn't afford the cost of a hotel - with a very, very small amount of prize money coming his way.
"The Futures tour is a rat race - the finances are absolutely brutal," Jones said. "If you lose in qualifying you get no money. A couple of weeks ago I won £27 ($37) after losing in singles quallies and then lost first round doubles - the minimum for a hotel was £110 ($150) a night.
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"You're losing money every single week. When people see you're a tennis player and see you're at Wimbledon, they think you have loads of money and live a luxurious life. You don't - it's the complete opposite."
Around a dozen hitting partners are hired during Wimbledon, with players reportedly paid a daily rate of £120. In a bonus, practice supremos are also handed a food allowance, while able to use the racquet stringers and physios on call at the club.
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Jones first took up the role in 2022. He enjoyed the experience so much that he returned the following year. In 2024 he was drafted in by Croatia's Donna Vekic, as her full-time hitter.
Jones clearly worked his magic on practice courts as Vekic made the semi-finals that year. Yet, despite rubbing shoulders with the stars of tennis, Jones admitted to casting one eye back to his time on the Futures Tour.
"It's funny," Jones added. "Because when I was travelling the world with a top star, staying in the nicest hotels and using the best facilities, I actually missed the Futures.
"I wanted to go back to the jungle and the hellholes. You've got to remember where you came from. Remember the grind."
Jones lives in California with his girlfriend and is set to head back to the US for a three-week spell at a Futures competition in Illinois. Yet he isn't done with the All England Club just yet. "Next year I want to be back at Wimbledon - playing doubles. That's the goal," he said.