Wimbledon has elevated its prize cash for this yr’s championships to 53.5 million kilos ($72.59 million), a 7% improve on 2024 and double what was provided a decade in the past, the All England Garden Tennis Membership stated Thursday.
The singles champions will obtain 3 million kilos ($4.07 million) every, the best throughout all Grand Slams and a 11.1% improve on the prize cash that Carlos Alcaraz and Barbora Krejcikova took house final yr.
Singles gamers who lose within the first spherical will obtain 66,000 kilos, a ten% improve over 2024. Doubles prize cash has additionally elevated by 4.4%, blended doubles by 4.3% and the wheelchair and quad wheelchair occasions by 5.6%.
The rise comes after the world’s prime gamers referred to as for important enhancements in prize cash on the 4 Grand Slams as a manner to make sure a extra equitable distribution of income.
“We’ve listened to the gamers. We’ve engaged with the gamers,” AELTC chair Deborah Jevans stated. “However the concentrate on simply the prize cash on the 4 occasions, the Grand Slams, doesn’t get to the center of what the problem is with tennis.
“The problem with tennis is the truth that the gamers haven’t got an offseason, which they need; they’ve growing accidents that they are talking about.”
Jevans stated Wimbledon is prepared to have interaction with the excursions to attempt to discover options, however there has not been any proposal as to how the tour is ready to change its construction.
Closing at 4 p.m.
The AELTC stated the doubles finals on July 12 and 13 would begin at 1 p.m. native time (8 a.m. ET) with the singles finals at 4 p.m.
That might doubtlessly change the taking part in circumstances — corresponding to having the roof closed and the lights switched on — if the singles finals run lengthy and properly into the night time.
The French Open males’s closing Sunday, when Alcaraz beat Jannik Sinner, lasted 5 hours, 29 minutes, however AELTC CEO Sally Bolton stated the change in timing would guarantee an “improved expertise” for all.
“Whether or not that is the doubles finalists having better certainty over their schedule, whether or not it is the followers having the chance to expertise a day which builds to the crescendo of the singles finals or guaranteeing that we’ve our champions topped in entrance of the widest attainable viewers,” she stated.
No line judges
This yr’s championships additionally mark a break with an age-old custom as line judges will probably be changed for the primary time with the digital line calling system that’s in place at tournaments worldwide.
Bolton stated “the time is true to maneuver on,” including that many line judges would return in numerous roles as match assistants, with two assigned per courtroom.
“They’re additional eyes and ears, the assistant to the chair umpire … we have got about 80 of these throughout the Championships,” Bolton stated. “They will additionally present one of many elements of our resilience within the occasion that the digital line calling system goes down at any cut-off date.”