Wimbledon increases prize money

WIMBLEDON, England (AP) -- Not only will women continue to get less prize money than men at Wimbledon this year, the dollar gap between the sexes will widen.

The All England Club on Tuesday announced a 5 percent increase in prize money across the board to 8.82 million pounds ($12.7 million) for the June 24-July 7 tournament.

The men's champion will receive 525,000 pounds ($756,000), while the women's winner will get 486,000 pounds ($700,000). Last year, Goran Ivanisevic was paid 500,000 pounds ($720,000), and Venus Williams 462,000 pounds ($666,000).

The total prize money is 4.37 pounds ($6.29) million for men and 3.70 pounds ($5.32 million) for women, with the rest of the overall fund going to mixed doubles and senior doubles events.

The discrepancy had narrowed the past two years because Wimbledon gave the women higher percentage increases. But not this year.

The Women's Tennis Association, which has campaigned for years for even pay, expressed disappointment at Wimbledon's decision.

"We continue to be concerned over the lack of equality between women's and men's prize money," WTA Tour chief operations officer Josh Ripple said Tuesday. "Over the next year we will work with Wimbledon to review the disparity and to achieve an outcome which will reflect the ever increasing strength of the Sanex WTA Tour."

But All England Club chairman Tim Phillips said he envisioned no change in the policy.

"I said last year I didn't expect to see [equal pay] in the foreseeable future," he said. "I do think we're being fair. We've applied a 5 percent increase of both the men's and women's total and the women's total is a marginally smaller increase. It makes a tiny difference."

Like Wimbledon, the French Open still gives more money to the men. The other Grand Slam tournaments, the U.S. Open and Australian Open, pay equal prize money.

"Although this remains a priority for the WTA, there has not been any major hoo-ha about it," Phillips said. "We consider the U.S. and Australian Opens to be the ones being out of line.

"There are no other tournaments with equal prize money and we are not sure there are many other sporting events with equal parity in terms of men and women."

Phillips said it would be wrong for all four Grand Slams to have similar winnings.

"You have to be careful in terms of collusion between the Grand Slams in what they decide to pay," he said. "Each of us is completely independent. We pay what we each decide is the right amount."

French Open organizers have announced total prize money of $10.7 million for their May 27-June 9 tournament. The men's champion will earn $686,135, the women's $668,981.

The U.S. Open's total purse last year was $15.8 million.

Phillips also announced plans to redevelop the Wimbledon complex, including a new two-tier Court Two -- a site often known as the "graveyard" of former champions.

The All England Club has lodged planning permission with its local council for the 2,500-seat stand, which can be temporarily doubled in capacity for Wimbledon.

One new feature this year is a refurbished Royal Box, but Phillips said it was unlikely that Queen Elizabeth II would attend. This year is her Golden Jubilee, celebrating 50 years on the throne.

All members of the royal family have been invited, but the last time the queen attended Wimbledon was in her Silver Jubilee year of 1977.

 

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