Wimbledon increases prize money after players called for improvements in revenue distribution
Wimbledon is raising its prize money by 7% for this year's championship, bumping the total up to 53.5 million pounds ($ 72.59 million). On Thursday, the All England Lawn Tennis Club announced a significant increase, which has nearly doubled the $ 40.60 million prize money from 2015.
Singles champions will see an 11.1% increase from last year, when Carlos Alcaraz and Barbora Krejcikova won the men's and women's singles titles. This year's victors of the individual tournaments will receive the highest prize across all Grand Slam competitions, a staggering 3 million pounds ($ 4.07 million).
Players who are eliminated in the first round of singles competition will see a 10% increase from last year, while doubles prize money goes up 4.4%, mixed doubles 4.3% and wheelchair and quad wheelchair 5.6%.
Wimbledon made the adjustments after athletes campaigned for improvements in the Grand Slam prize money to ensure a more impartial revenue distribution. AELTC chair Deborah Jevans said, per ESPN, that the club "Listened to the players. We have engaged with the players.
"But the focus on just the prize money at the four events, the Grand Slams, does not get to the heart of what the challenge is with tennis," Jevans added. "The challenge with tennis is the fact that the players don't have an offseason, which they want; they have increasing injuries that they're speaking about."
Jevans also noted how Wimbledon is willing to work with the tours to continue working toward better compensation for the athletes.
The Wimbledon Championships will start on June 30 and run through July 13. Apart from paying the players more, AELTC is taking more steps to improve the Wimbledon experience this year.
First, the tournament is moving when finals games are played. The club said the doubles finals on July 12 and 13 would start at 1 p.m. local time (8 a.m. ET), while the singles finals begin at 4 p.m. local time.
Additionally, this year's tournament will be the first to feature the electronic line-calling system over line judges. According to AELTC CEO Sally Bolton, "the time is right to move on" from the old system and join other tournaments using modern technology.
"They're extra eyes and ears, the assistant to the chair umpire. We've got about 80 of those across the Championships," Bolton said, per ESPN. "They'll also provide one of the parts of our resilience in the event that the electronic line calling system goes down at any point in time."
