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 Upping the ante Wimbledon increases prize money
Posted: Thursday April 29, 1999 02:08 PM
WIMBLEDON, England (AP) -- Wimbledon could be on a collision course with women's tennis after refusing yet again to give equal prize money to men and women. What might anger the women even more is the All England's Clubs reasons for refusing the WTA's demands. Announcing a 5.4 percent increase in prize money to an overall 7.6 million pounds (US$12.16 million), club chairman John Curry explained on Thursday why the men's winner will take home 455,000 pounds (US$728,000) and the winning woman only 409,500 pounds (US$655,200). "We do surveys of all the people who come on a regular basis and, in three surveys over the past 10 years, 70 percent of the people say that first and foremost the thing they want to watch is men's singles," Curry said. "[The women] have every right to request but to demand it I think is hurtful and damaging to Wimbledon. It implies that we treat them unfairly and that's obviously not true from the evidence. "I think that the players enjoy playing Wimbledon and the prize money is only a small portion of their income." The WTA said that the women received only 83 percent of the figure Wimbledon offers to the men and that was far below any of the other Grand Slams. At the U.S. Open, women receive equal prize money with the men, in Australia, they receive 94 percent and, at the French Open at Roland Garros, it's 90 percent. Under pressure to cut the disparity, Wimbledon has increased the women's doubles prize money by 10.5 percent. "Wimbledon's recognition of the increased strength of women's doubles is heartening," said Bart McGuire, chief executive officer of the WTA Tour. "But its refusal to give the women a higher percentage of the singles prize money is extremely disappointing. "Wimbledon is the only Grand Slam that has failed to provide equal prize money or to increase the prize money in women's singles relative to the men in recognition of the increased strength of the women's game," McGuire said. "The Tour and its players expected more and merit more." Curry said the club remained adamant that there should be no equality in singles prize money. "We have had representations from the WTA who say they deserve equal prize money in all Grand Slam events," Curry said. "There is supposed to be a petition signed by 90 players which we've heard about but haven't seen. "I think I'm right in saying that they get less than 50 percent of the men's ATP tournaments and in combined events it is around 60 percent." He also said that, because the women's titles are spread between fewer players compared with the men, the best women wind up taking home more money, especially because they also dominate doubles events. "The people who walk away with the largest checks are the ladies," he said. "Jana Novotna earned more than Pete Sampras last year." Sampras earned 435,000 pounds (US$696,000) for winning the men's singles and Novotna, who teamed up with Martina Hingis to win the women's doubles to go with her singles triumph, won 468,580 pounds (US$749,728). The All England Club is continuing a major rebuilding program which should be completed in time for the 2000 tournament and chief executive Chris Gorringe said that an extra 728 Centre Court seats would be ready this year, 12 months ahead of schedule taking the total capacity on the court to 13,813.
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