Tennis: Biggest jackpot up for grabs at Wimbers
If Roger Federer lands his sixth title he will also pocket a cool £750,000.
Saturday, May 03, 2008
And of course with the ladies now enjoying equal pay the women's champion
will enjoy the same.
While the titles are worth much more, the players who don't make it to the
latter stages can also expect to net a few extra pounds, which will help
them continue on the tour as the total prize money stands at £11.812million.
"It's difficult to answer whether we feel the women give equal value
for money compared to the men," said championship chairman Tim Phillips.
"Last year we had an extraordinary men's final, the previous year we
had an extraordinary ladies' final. Each year one event might be better than
the other.
"But we felt that equal prize money was absolutely the right thing to
do and we stick by that."
The prize money may have gone up but Wimbledon will not be extending the
length of the tournament.
Last year's schedule was thrown into chaos by the worst weather to hit the
All England Club for 25 years, sparking an angry response from some players.
Ultimately the championships finished on time but there have been calls for
Wimbledon to start on Sunday, as happens at Roland Garros, to combat any
potential delays.
But the All England Club's chief executive, Ian Ritchie, believes the
current system, with the middle Sunday kept free in case of a backlog of
matches develops, should be retained.
"We feel that a 13-day schedule is the right amount of time to get
value of matches on each particular day," he said.
"Obviously, if you add a day there is the danger you might thin out the
number of games.
"We are comfortable that 13 days is right and we'll keep the 14th day
on standby for weather reasons.
"We don't think it's right to expand that further at this stage."
The redevelopment of Centre Court is on schedule with a permanent,
non-removable roof being installed.
The seating capacity has been increased by 1,200 to 15,000 and the work will
be completed in time for Wimbledon 2009, while the new Court Two is
structurally complete and will also come into use in summer next year.
"All the major jobs, the most obtrusive ones, will have been done by
next year," said Phillips.
