Wimbledon 2016: Andy Murray calls for increase in prize money on Futures circuit after decades of stagnation

As a member of the player council, the world No 2 is determined to see more money made available at the bottom of the game

Andy Murray celebrates on Centre Court after getting off to a winning start at this year's Wimbledon (Getty)

Now that his extraordinary Wimbledon run is over, Marcus Willis faces a choice. Does the 25-year-old Briton go back to earning £30 an hour coaching at Warwick Boat Club or does he return to life on the Futures circuit, where prize money levels have barely risen in decades?

Andy Murray has just joined the Association of Tennis Professionals’ player council and is determined to do something for players who struggle to make a living like Willis.

“The first thing is we need to improve the prize money at Futures level,” Murray said. “I think it’s stayed the same since the 1980s. The cost of everything has gone up massively since then, so it’s impossible to stay at that level for more than a couple of years. You are losing money unless you are winning each week.

“So for the guys that are stuck there for a couple of years, playing quarter-finals and semi-finals, you simply cannot fund your career that way. The first thing is you have to improve the prize money at the lowest level. It’s been going up everywhere else, at the top of the game massively. But that hasn’t filtered down to the bottom of the game. That’s something that needs to change.”

Marcus Willis and Roger Federer exchange words at the end of the Centre Court match (Getty)

In the last Futures tournament he played, in Tunisia in January, Willis reached the quarter-finals of both the singles and doubles yet won total prize money of just $356 (about £263). He has not played in any tournaments at that level since the start of the year because he simply could not afford to do so.

While the £50,000 that Willis will bank as consolation for his defeat to Roger Federer here might help to finance plenty of trips to tournaments in the coming months, the world No 772 knows what a struggle it is for the vast majority of the sport’s wannabes.

Pitiful prize money on the two lowest tiers of international tennis – the Futures circuit and, above it, the Challenger tour – has long been a bone of contention. The problem is that most of the tournaments attract very few spectators or media attention and consequently struggle to find sponsors. If prize money is to go up, who will pay for it?

Murray, nevertheless, is determined to do something about Futures prize money in his role with the player council, which provides a voice for the players within the Association of Tennis Professionals, which runs the men’s tour.

“Players are now breaking through later than they ever were before, so players are obviously finding ways to hang around,” Murray said. “A lot of the guys play club tennis to try to make some extra money, which helps. We don’t have that in this country. You can travel to Europe and do that. In Spain they have a far more money tournaments.

“Someone like Marcus, if he had lost in the pre-qualifying at Wimbledon, we wouldn’t have had this unbelievable story and he might not be coming back to play in January. You never know.

“There has to be more money at the bottom of the game. Some of the $10,000 tournaments have a 128-strong qualifying draw and it costs $30 to enter the qualifying competition. That’s a lot of money that doesn’t go to the players. The players at that level really need the money.”

At Challenger level, too, prize money has barely risen since the 1990s. One problem for aspiring young professionals is that many seasoned professionals play on the Challenger circuit, which is the middle tier, just below the main tour.

Murray’s second-round opponent here, Taiwan’s Yen-Hsun Lu, is a good example. The 32-year-old did not have a high enough world ranking to play in the pre-Wimbledon tournaments on the main tour this summer so instead played in three Challenger events in Britain. He won two of them and reached the final of the other.

For now, nevertheless, Murray will be focusing on his own fortunes here and in particular the challenge presented by Lu. The world No 76 lost his last three meetings with the Scot but won their very first encounter at the Beijing Olympics in 2008, a result which taught Murray a number of lessons.

“I learned that I was there to play tennis and not just enjoy being part of the Olympics,” Murray said. “I turned up late because I had won Cincinnati. I did the opening ceremony and I was hanging out with a lot of the other athletes as I stayed in the village. It was great, a great experience, but when I lost I was gutted. I realised that my job at the Olympics was to try to win a medal for the country.”

At Rio this summer Murray will be staying off-site. “Ideally you would go to the opening ceremony and stay in the Olympic Village, but that didn’t work for me in Beijing,” Murray said. “At the Olympics in London I stayed at home. I was just a lot more focused and in my own little bubble. It was one of the best weeks of my life, so I’m not going to change that this time.”

Lu reached the quarter-finals here six years ago by beating Andy Roddick and says that grass suits his game. He has won 15 of the 16 matches he has played on grass in the last month, having recently returned to competition following a lengthy break with an elbow injury.

“I don’t put too much pressure on myself and I hope I can feel comfortable and feel good when I play against Andy,” Lu said. “Of course it is going to be difficult, but I know what I should do and I will just try and play my tennis out there.”