In the first of a three-part series on the realities of professional tennis, Telegraph Sport learns the effects of high travel costs and pitiful prize money.

It was Christmas Day 2016, and Jay Clarke was desperately trying to find somewhere – anywhere – in Hong Kong to make a video call to his family.

“Eventually I found a McDonald’s – it was the only place that was open,” explains Clarke, with a rueful smile. “It was pretty depressing.”

For Clarke, the young British tennis player who recently broke into the world’s top 220, it was a reminder that the life of a professional tennis player is far from luxurious.

While the glitterati at the top of the game enjoy first-class travel, five-star hotels and million-pound pay cheques, for around 14,000 professionals not ranked in the world’s top 100, tennis means scrambling for enough cash to afford a flight to the farthest-flung corners of the planet, hours spent alone in cheap hotel rooms and competing for paltry prize money in front of handfuls of spectators at venues that would make many amateur club players blanch.

As Clarke explains: “People say you’re lucky to travel the world but, in reality, you never see anything. It’s great to do because I love the sport but it’s not as luxurious as people think. Put it this way, I don’t play it for the lifestyle.”