There is a brutally vivid cash divide in the tennis locker room and Marcus Willis is living proof that a career in the top 100 of the men’s game can be far from glamorous.

With $184,265,269 in career prize-money and many hundreds of millions more than that in earnings from deals spawning from his success, Novak Djokovic sits at the top of the sport’s rich list.

Djokovic’s great rivals Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Andy Murray feature prominently in the all-time tennis rich list and if you take your singles career into the top 50 of the ATP Rankings for a sustained period, your financial future and that of those around you will be secure for years to come.

Yet below that elite level of the men’s game, the sport is battling to fund its nearly men.

Tennis cannot exist with just a handful of players competing against each other every week, with contenders ranked between 75 and 150 in the ATP Rankings a mix of rising stars and veterans clinging on to their hopes of a comeback.

So many stories have been told of the struggles of players to break even financially on the tennis tour if they are not winning enough matches.

Djokovic has been leading the calls for more cash to drip down to the lower-ranked players and that has happened in recent years, with prize money for those playing in qualifying and losing early in Grand Slam tournaments increasing.

“We have to do a better job, we have to create a better system for them (lower-ranked players) to make a living, at least break even,” says Djokovic. “If you’re 200 in the world, you can’t travel with a coach. This is not good enough.”

All in the sport agree with Djokovic’s sentiments, but there is only so much money to spread around and when it comes to players competing on the doubles tour, that scraps of what remains in the cash pot dwindles further.

Doubles teams competing in the latter stages of Grand Slam are well rewarded, but those battling to get to that level rely on money from sponsors, family members and friends to fund their dreams.

Tennis News

British star opens up on his darkest moments… and his rise to the top 100 of the ATP Rankings

The top 13 combined all-time tennis prize money earners: Novak Djokovic top, Serena Williams 4th

That has been the story for British doubles player Marcus Willis, who set out on a dream to break into the top 100 of the ATP Rankings back in 2022 and completed that journey earlier this year.

His road to that goal has been laced with challenges and even though he has won a host of tournaments in the second tiers of tennis, he has told Tennis365 that his journey has been far from glamorous.

“Without a sponsor, it’s impossible for someone in my position to keep a career like this going,” Willis told Tennis365.

“There is a lot of travel, a lot of expense to get to these tournaments. Some weeks you have to take defeats on the chin and if you lose early in smaller tournament, you might only get £600 and then you are out of pocket for that week.

“I have rent to pay every month and a young family to support, so you need backing from sponsors to fund this.

“I’ve had a lot of stress along the way. I’ve had sponsors drop out, others come in and that has been tough. Some people promise you certain things and then don’t deliver on them, so you find yourself needing another sponsor.

“Even after a year, I was up to around 200 in the world, so I didn’t want to stop then. Had I been still only 600 or 700 in the world at that point, maybe I would have stopped.

“There have been some really challenging times. You are sat in a hotel room on your own abroad and you are questioning everything. You either sink or swim at that moment and I’ve done a lot of swimming. More than I wanted to.

“Now I am planning my next few tournaments, it’s a nightmare trying to find doubles partners, finding time to get in the gym and get into better shape and looking forward to the next challenge. The tennis world never stops.”

You are within touching distance of the big-time when you are practising on the same courts and playing in the same tournaments as the biggest stars in tennis, yet those who are not winning enough to join the game’s elite feel even more detached from the sport.

So how can tennis find extra revenue to keep their star names content financially and still find some spare change for those who may never win enough to become wealthy from the sport?

“They are looking to get more singles guys involved and that’s fine, but they earn so much from singles and don’t really need doubles,” continues Willis, who played the great Roger Federer in the second round of the Wimbledon singles back in 2016.

“If you raise prize money in doubles, you may get a few more singles players entering, but I’m not sure that would help someone in my position.

“I could play with a singles player, but we know that if they go deep in their event, they will probably pull out of the doubles. Are you really going to risk a singles title if you are carrying a little injury for €300 in prize money in a doubles match?

“There is talk of changing the rules so that everyone stands behind the baseline on a serve and it means you get a few more rallies and I would support that. Even though I love doubles, it is challenging to watch in the men’s game if every rally is over after three or four shots.

“I don’t know what we can do to really push doubles. If every week was like Wimbledon, it would be great, but it’s not like that sadly.

“We always get loads of people watching doubles at Wimbledon, but the reality is the rest of the time we don’t get big crowds.

“I’ve played Futures finals in front of one man and his dog. I played a Challenger final in France and there was a good crowd in the thousands watching, but I have played other finals and we had 40 people watching.

“They are trying their best to distribute the money better, but it’s difficult. How far down can you go? I think the tennis we are playing deserves more money for the players, but where is it going to come from? I don’t have the answer to that.”

Willis has set his sights on lifting his ATP Ranking to a point where he qualifies for Grand Slam events, as he confirmed he has managed to sustain his career with on court winnings after a successful 2024.

“I’ve kept myself going this year on prize money, so things have worked out,” he added.

“It’s a long way from sharing Airbnb’s in Sunderland when I started out on this journey!

“Now I’m aiming to take that next step and when I have come up against the top doubles guys, I feel like I’ve been quite close with them. There is not a lot of improvement I need to make to be with them and I believe I can do it.”

Players like Willis keep the tennis ecosystem healthy as the greats of the game need hungry opponents coming through the ranks to test their resolve.

How the sport can retain the talents of those who don’t quite make it to the very top and cannot afford to keep their careers afloat is a debate that will run and run.