Wimbledon prize pot increases as players push for greater profit share
The winners of the men's and women's singles titles will each receive £3 million, an increase of more than 11 per cent on 2024, while a main draw spot is worth a minimum of £66,000, up 10 percent.
The All England Club's announcement comes after growing player demands for a bigger share of revenue from the four majors.
In April, 20 leading players sent a letter to the heads of the Grand Slams calling for greater contributions and discussions were held during the French Open.
All England Club chairwoman Debbie Jevans said at Wimbledon's pre-tournament media briefing on Thursday the club was "absolutely committed to continuing our longstanding commitment to player compensation".
"We're immensely proud of the fact that if you look back 10 years, you can see the increase over that period (of 100 percent) and seven per cent this year," she said.
"We have listened to the players, we have engaged with the players. Of course we will always listen and discuss with them but the focus on just the prize money at four events, the Grand Slams, does not get to the heart of what the challenge is with tennis.
"The challenge with tennis is the fact that the players don't have an off-season, which they want, they have increasing injuries that they're speaking about and we've always said that we as Wimbledon are willing to engage and talk with the tours to try and find solutions and that door remains open.
"As yet, there hasn't been any proposal to us as to how the tour is able to change its structure.
"There's a bigger picture here but, as a tennis player, they're always going to, I think, ask for more money."
In a major change at Wimbledon this year, line judges are being replaced by a live electronic calling system.
The All England club follows the Australian Open and the US Open in implementing the change, though the French Open still uses human officials.
Around 80 former officials will be employed this year as match assistants, with two on each court offering support to the umpire, while they will also provide back-up should the electronic system fail.
Wimbledon runs from June 30 to July 13, with Carlos Alcaraz and Barbora Krejcikova the defending champions.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
France 24
2 hours ago
- France 24
Scheffler opens with birdie as US Open leader Spaun starts late
Spaun's four-under par 66 opening round on Thursday matched the lowest first-round score in a US Open at Oakmont and was only the eighth bogey-free first round ever conjured at the iconic layout. The American's career-low major round put him one stroke ahead of South African Thriston Lawrence with five-time major winner Brooks Koepka and South Koreans Im Sung-jae and Kim Si-woo sharing third on 68. Spaun, Lawrence and Kim were set for late tee times while early starts were made by Koepka, Im and Rahm, a two-time major winner lurking three adrift after a 69 on Thursday. Koepka opened Friday with a bogey at the 10th hole, finding right rough and coming up short of the green then missing a 10-foot par putt, but answered with a birdie at 11, sinking an 11-foot putt to return to two-under. Im also stayed at two-under with a par on the first hole. Rahm found a right fairway bunker off the first tee then left greenside rough and missed an 18-foot par putt, settling for bogey. Scheffler opened Friday off the back nine by sinking a birdie putt at 10 from just beyond 20 feet as he tried to rebound from an opening 73, his worst first-round score relative to par in 24 major starts. Scheffler has won three of his past four starts, including last month's PGA Championship, and hopes to become the first back-to-back major winner since Jordan Spieth in 2015. Other US stars struggled at Oakmont with third-ranked Xander Schauffele, the reigning British Open champion, on 72, defending champion Bryson DeChambeau on 73 and six-time major winner Phil Mickelson on 74. England's Justin Rose was on 77 with Ireland's Shane Lowry on 79. World number two Rory McIlroy, who won the Masters in April to complete a career Grand Slam, was set for an afternoon tee time following an opening 74 including four bogeys and a double bogey in his final nine holes. The five-time major winner from Northern Ireland shared 62nd after round one, with only the top 60 and ties set to make the 36-hole cut. Only 10 players cracked 70 in the first round, but 11 of the past 12 US Open winners broke 70 in their first rounds.
France 24
15 hours ago
- France 24
Koepka gets Oakmont scolding and leaps into US Open title hunt
The 35-year-old American took his lesson in a bunker at Oakmont and responded by firing a two-under-par 68 to stand two off the lead after Thursday's firt round. "It's nice to put a good round together. It has been a while," said Koepka. "I've been working hard, just got into some bad habits and bad swing positions. We worked pretty hard last week." Koepka works with Englishman Cowen on his short game and with coach Jeff Pierce on his putting. Both instructed him last week. Cowen went back at it on Monday in a practice round. "Pete got into me again on Monday, in the bunker for about 45 minutes. I just sat there, and he scolded me pretty well," Koepka said. "It's just a matter of executing the feels versus perception for where I've been. It has been so far off, it's on opposite sides, but now it's starting to click. "Unfortunately, we're about halfway through the season, so that's not ideal, but we're learning." How intense was Cowen's teaching session? "JT (Justin Thomas) thought he had to come check on me in the bunker. We were in there for about 45 minutes and he was on the other side of the green... He was like, 'I was worried, your head was down.' "Yeah, Pete, I'll keep that between us. I wasn't happy with it, but it was something I needed to hear at the right time. It's not the first time he's done it. He's not afraid to." Koepka said he had not done it since the 2017 US Open at Erin Hills, when Koepka won the title. "I don't like having 'yes' people around me. I just want somebody to tell me the truth, tell me what's going on, what they see," he said. Koepka won the 2017 and 2018 US Open titles and the PGA Championship in 2018, 2019 and 2023. But after five wins in Saudi-backed LIV Golf, Koepka has not won since last August at Greenbrier and not managed a top-10 major finish in two years. "Still the same person. Just mechanics were off," Koepka said. "Getting on the right track. "I wasn't consistent enough. When I felt like I cut one, it was drawing. I felt like I blocked one, it would go straight. I just had no sense of reality of where things were. My perception was so far off." Long practice range sessions last week paid off, Koepka said. "It's starting to click," he said. "I'm starting to see the ball flight evolve where it's a nice little fade and I don't have the two-way miss going. Very consistent now." © 2025 AFP
France 24
16 hours ago
- France 24
Spaun takes US Open nervous energy to record Oakmont start
Spaun, however, took his nervous energy and chaneled it into a bogey-free four-under-par 66 on Thursday to equal the best US Open first round ever fired at the famously challenging course. "I didn't really feel like I'm going to show a bogey-free round four-under. I didn't really know what to expect especially since I've never played here," Spaun said. "But yeah, maybe sometimes not having expectations is the best thing, so I'll take it." The 34-year-old American began on the back side, made birdies on four of the first eight holes, then closed with 10 pars, some of them grinding long putts or rescues from rough to ease his worries. "All you've been hearing is how hard this place is, and it's hard to not hear the noise," Spaun said. "I was actually pretty nervous. "But I actually tried to harness that, the nerves, the anxiety, because it kind of heightens my focus, makes me swing better, I guess. "I get more in the zone, whereas if I don't have any worry or if I'm not in it mentally, it's kind of just a lazy round or whatever out there. "I like feeling uncomfortable. I ended up feeling pretty comfortable towards the end of the day, but there's a long way to go still." Spaun won his only PGA Tour title at the 2022 Texas Open and this year was second at the Cognizant Classic and Players Championship, losing a playoff to second-ranked Rory McIlroy. "I didn't win, but it was great for me to lean back on that experience and know I can perform on the biggest of stages and handle it with the pressure," Spaun said. "There's going to be a lot of pressure this week, too, and hopefully I can rely on those experiences. "I've been consistently right there. And everyone knows that the more you put yourself there, the better you're going to have results and the better you're going to play, eventually turn one of those close calls into a win." Leaping atop the leaderboard early on day one never hurts, either. "It definitely makes me feel good, makes me feel confident that I'm leading the tournament. But there's plenty more golf left. This course is only going to get tougher," Spaun said. "I'm trying to feel like I have nothing to lose. That was kind of my mantra at The Players going into Sunday with the lead. It was like, I feel like I have nothing to lose. "So I'm going to roll with that again this week and hopefully it'll turn out more in my favor." Not bad for a guy who was fretting over his swing last week. "I felt like I was a little off after Memorial," Spaun said. "I tried tweaking some things at home, and kind of went down the rabbit hole and just kind of threw it out the window." © 2025 AFP
