Latest news with #AorangiPark
Yahoo
11-07-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
Escaping 'rat race' to warm up Wimbledon's stars
Adam Jones (left) hit with Emma Raducanu before her Wimbledon third-round match against top seed Aryna Sabalenka [Getty Images] Over the Wimbledon fortnight, Adam Jones turns into a tennis impersonator. Each day the 27-year-old Briton is asked by the world's leading players to mimic the style of their next opponent on the All England Club practice courts. Advertisement Jones is ranked 1,513th in the world in the singles, a bit higher in the doubles at 619th, but has one of the most important jobs at the Championships. As a Wimbledon hitting partner, he has been the go-to guy for semi-finalists Novak Djokovic, Carlos Alcaraz, Amanda Anisimova and Belinda Bencic this year, as well as British number one Emma Raducanu. "It's a great gig and a fun way to earn some money," Jones told BBC Sport at the Aorangi Park practice courts. "Whoever they're playing you try to copy their style. "With Carlos, before he played Jan-Lennard Struff, who has a massive serve, I was standing a metre inside the baseline nuking serves." Advertisement Standing across the net from the stars is quite the change from what Jones is used to. The Birkenhead-born player, who trained in Wrexham and Bath before moving to the United States, travels the world to play on the ITF Futures Tour - the lowest rung of the professional ladder. It is hard to make ends meet on what he calls the "grind" of trying to climb up the ranks. Jones describes having to sleep in a tight tent pitched on a golf course, and a sweaty 15-man dormitory, because he cannot afford a hotel. Sitting for six hours in a train toilet between London to Glasgow was another way to save cash. Advertisement "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 $37 after losing in singles quallies and then lost first round doubles - the minimum for a hotel was $150 a night. "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." With the constant necessity to make ends meet, Jones returned to Wimbledon this year as one of their in-house hitting partners. Advertisement Several are employed during the championships, with players believed to be paid a daily rate of about £120 - whether they are asked to hit for one hour or several hours. They are also provided with a food allowance at the club, while also able to use the racquet stringers and physios. Jones first took up the role in 2022 and enjoyed the experience so much that he returned the following year. Last year, he was employed by Croatia's Donna Vekic - who reached the SW19 semi-finals - as her full-time hitter. He travelled on tour with the world number 25 and her team for six months before leaving to continue his own playing career. Advertisement "It's funny 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." The hustle will restart after Wimbledon. Jones, who lives in California with his girlfriend, is going back to the US for a three-week stint at Futures events in Illinois. Improving his doubles ranking in order to gain entry to the ATP Challenger Tour, and eventually the ATP Tour, is his ambition in the coming months. "Next year I want to be back at Wimbledon - playing doubles. That's the goal."
Telegraph
04-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Telegraph
The cheerleading entourage that gave Emma Raducanu her smile back
As the sun blazed down on the Aorangi Park practice courts on Thursday afternoon, Emma Raducanu sat on a bench with her coach Mark Petchey and watched world No 1 Jannik Sinner go through his hitting session. It was an unexpected way to prepare for her date with the other world No 1, Aryna Sabalenka, on Friday evening. Asked what had prompted her interest, Raducanu replied: 'Yeah, I'm learning by osmosis. He is so effortless when he hits the ball. I have been trying to watch a bit more live [tennis]. I watched [Joao] Fonseca the other day.' Her demeanour suggested a surprisingly serene state of mind, even during this most stressful of fortnights, when the eyes of the nation are upon her. Given that Sabalenka is the only top-five seed remaining, Raducanu would surely prefer to be almost anywhere else in the draw. But at least she can swing freely on Friday, in the knowledge that few are expecting her to win. Another explanation for her sunny mood lies in the presence of her extended friendship group at this event. As she said on Wednesday night, shortly after dispatching 2023 Wimbledon champion Marketa Vondrousova on Centre Court: 'It's so rad. I have all of them here in one place. They've been my rock through everything. They're the closest people to me outside of my family.' So who are these pals? Raducanu singled out one of them, Ben Heynold, by mentioning that she had known him since she was six. He is a one-time British junior, two years older than her, who signed up for college tennis at the University of North Carolina before joining financial-services provider The Raine Group. Their long friendship is believed to be platonic, but Raducanu inevitably attracted plenty of gossip-column inches when she celebrated her 2021 US Open title by sharing an evening in Times Square with Heynold. She has previously said: 'My parents were very much against [boyfriends] as it interfered with training. When I was younger I wasn't even allowed to hang out with my girl friends'. In the photograph that Raducanu posted on Instagram after Monday's victory over 17-year-old compatriot Mimi Xu, she is flanked by Ben's mother Laura – who has also known her since she was small – and another close friend in Carla Wilfert. 'I think it adds more significance because they never really get to come and watch me,' said Raducanu. 'We made it an annual thing. They can come to Wimbledon. It aligns with everyone's calendar. A lot of them live in America. They're friends from secondary school, childhood. One of them [Heynold] I've known since I was six years old. Then another one since I was 14. 'It's just so special. They're in the box there. When I look over to them, it just gives me an extra boost of motivation.' Although Raducanu hasn't explained how she came to meet these friends in the first place, it seems likely that her connection to Wilfert was established via Heynold – as they both attended the same American international school near Egham in Surrey. After completing her baccalaureate exams in 2020, Wilfert moved to Los Angeles, where she now works in the marketing department of entertainment conglomerate Fox. A close contemporary of 22-year-old Raducanu, Wilfert is here with her boyfriend Ryan Cohen, an employee of the medical manufacturer Boston Scientific, yet another graduate of that same school near Egham. As Raducanu explained: 'They're so busy with their work often. They studied in America, too. So to have them all here in this one week, it just makes me really happy. 'After my match, I just went outside to see them for five or 10 minutes and speak to them. And that's just an opportunity that is so rare, and you don't really get that at other tournaments, because they have lives. So I have a few friends in other cities, but to have my real core, best friends here, it means a lot.' Professional tennis can be an alienating carousel of hotels and departure lounges. On Tuesday, defeated third seed Alexander Zverev described himself as feeling 'very lonely' in a moving press conference. Which is why Raducanu finds this supporting cast of real-life friends – as opposed to the colleagues-cum-rivals you find in the locker-room – to be such a boon. Crucially, their relationships date back to before that watershed moment in September 2021. As Raducanu said in a recent interview: 'The last few years, it's been very difficult for me to trust new people, especially those who have not necessarily known me from the years before the US Open. I just find myself gravitating towards those people now who I've known, and I'd say my circle is smaller than ever.' The same pattern applies to her professional recruitment. Take last year's coach Nick Cavaday, who ran her junior tennis programme in Orpington. Or Cavaday's recent replacement Petchey, who spent several weeks working with her in the summer of 2020. Or Jane O'Donoghue, the mentor who used to be a national coach for the Lawn Tennis Association. 'I was so sheltered,' Raducanu has said. 'Up to 18, I was just with my parents, they helped me with everything, like nothing could touch me. All of a sudden, after that, everyone came and I got burnt quite a lot of times, whether that's professionally or personally. Now I'm just like very Fort Knox with who I let in.' It's easy to see how a woman of Raducanu's profile could become suspicious, paranoid even. Which is why the presence of her US-based squad of cheerleaders is so valuable. With their support, she feels as though she starts each game at 15-0.
