The Hindu : Sport / Tennis : No equal prize money, asserts Wimbledon

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Apr 26, 2006

Sport

Sport - Tennis

No equal prize money, asserts Wimbledon

P. Subramanyam

London : Wimbledon tennis stuck to its rigid policy on equal pay to champions and confirmed that it would be the only Grand Slam not to offer its men's and women's champions equal prize money for the championships this summer.

The All England Club has unveiled its 2006 prize money with the men's winner earning £655,000 compared to the £625,000 first prize for the women.

It may be recalled that only last month, French Open organisers announced that for the first time they would reward their champions equally. The other two major events — the Australian Open and US Open — have been long-time supporters of equal prize money.

Venus disappointed

However, the total prize money at Wimbledon tops £10 million, this summer, with the singles prize money increased by 4% since 2005.

The 2005 women's champion Venus Williams was disappointed that organisers did not announce equal prize money for this year's event and did not rule out the possibility of some players taking some sort of action to assert their demands on equal prize money.

"We want to be treated equally as the men. This is not just about women's tennis but about women all over the world," she told BBC Sport.

"At Wimbledon, we would like to have equal prize money to prove that we are equal on all fronts. We will keep lobbying on the matter. We don't want to deprive fans from seeing women's tennis but we are willing to be extremely proactive in our stance," she said.

The All England Club has also confirmed that the existing east side of the famous Centre Court will be demolished after the Championships as part of the plan to build a retractable roof.

The new fixed roof will be in place for the 2008 Championships with the retractable roof to be completed the following year, it was announced.

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