ANDY Murray will use his seat on the ATP players council to try to improve the lot of struggling players such as Marcus Willis.
The 25-year-old qualifier from Slough, whose headline-grabbing run at this year's Wimbledon came to an entertaining end on Centre Court yesterday against the greatest player of all-time Roger Federer, will pick up a £50,000 purse for his endeavours.
It is not a bad week's work for a player who considered quitting the sport and still coaches to make ends meet, but freeing up more prize money to compensate them for their endeavours at Futures level is top of the Scot's priorities now he has become one of the sport's shop stewards for the first time.
Read more: Not a standard Wednesday as the Will Bomb explodes onto Centre Court
"The first thing is we need to improve the prize money at Futures level," said Murray, who will be joined on the body by both his brother Jamie and Novak Djokovic, even if there are no current plans to revisit divisive topics between the world's top two such as equal pay.
"It has 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 guys that are stuck there for a couple of years, playing quarter finals and semi finals, you simply cannot fund your career that way.
Some of the $10,000 tournaments, they have a 128 qualifying draw and it’s $30 to enter the qualifying. That’s a lot of money that doesn’t go to the players. And the players at that level really need the money."
The focus returns to Murray's own bid to reclaim the title he captured in 2013 today with his second round match against Yen Hsun-Lu of Chinese Taipei. Lu, still the only man to defeat the World No 2 in Olympic singles play, inflicted one of the most wounding defeats in the Scot's career when he beat him in the first round in Beijing in 2008.
While he has since gained revenge here in 2013 and at Queen's in 2015 - in both instances going on to win the tournament - the reigning Olympic champion will continue to take lessons from that Beijing setback into this year's event in Rio de Janeiro.
"I learned that I was there to play tennis and not just enjoy being part of the Olympics," said the Scot. "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, staying in the village. It was great, a great experience. But when I lost, I was gutted. I realised that my job at the Olympics is to try to win a medal for the country."
Consequently the 29-year-old shunned the opening ceremony in 2012 and plotted his gold medal bid from his home in Oxshott, Surrey. He will also stay off-site in Rio too, although he is determined to play - unlike so many of the golfing fraternity in particular.
For the third successive Olympics he will be accompanied by his brother Jamie in the men's doubles, while Scottish distance runner Andrew Butchart, whose girlfriend Caitlin Watson, is Andy and Jamie's step sister, is another Olympian amongst the extended clan.
"Ideally you would go to the opening ceremony and stay in the Olympic Village," Murray said. "But that didn’t work for me in Beijing. At the Olympics in London, I stayed at home. I was 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, a quarter finalist here in 2010 after taking care of Andy Roddick in the last 16, comes into the event in excellent grass court form, excelling in warm-up events in Ilkley, Surbiton and Manchester on his return to fitness following an elbow injury. He knows that Olympic victory is in the dim and distant past but has learned to play freely against the big hitters of the sport. He has even graced Centre Court before, a 2009 defeat in straight sets against Roger Federer.
"That [Beijing in 2008] was a long time ago but every time I face a big player I only have one goal, I want to challenge them," said Lu. "I don’t want them to walk away thinking it was easy.
"I am always trying to remember that moment [his 2010 run] when I come back here," said Lu. “Even if I don’t copy it again I am still really proud. But I am still playing and I may still have a chance to do better. I know I can play freely because I have nothing to lose. Andy has that pressure."
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