Wimbledon announces 11 per cent hike in prize money from last year

London, June 10 (IANS): The total prize money for the 2022 Wimbledon Championships will be a record 40.35 million pounds, the All England Lawn Tennis Club (AELTC) has announced.

It shows an 11.1 per cent increase from 2021, and a 5.4 per cent increase on the most recent full capacity Championships in 2019.

The men’s and women’s singles winners in the grass-court Grand Slam this year will receive two million each with an increase of 17.6 per cent on last year but is still shy of the 2.35 million in 2019.

The AELTC insisted that the prize money distribution for 2022 continues to place importance on supporting players in the early rounds of the event.

Therefore, the qualifying competition prize money fund has received a 26 per cent increase on 2021 and the main draw singles players competing in the first round will be playing for 50,000 pounds, a 4.2 per cent increase on 2021 and an 11.1 per cent increase on 2019.

This year’s Wimbledon is scheduled to run from June 27 to July 10. As the AELTC decided to ban Russian and Belarusian players from competing in this year’s tournament, both ATP and WTA have announced that they will not award ranking points to the competition.

Ian Hewitt, chairman of the All England Club, said, “From the first round of the Qualifying Competition to the Champions being crowned, this year’s prize money distribution aims to reflect just how important the players are to The Championships as we look to continue to deliver one of the world’s leading sporting events, and with a particularly special tournament ahead of us as we celebrate 100 years of Centre Court on Church Road.”