The winners of this year's Wimbledon
singles titles will share a prize fund of 1.88 million pounds ($2.87
million, 2.63 million euros) after organisers on Tuesday announced a
fourth consecutive prize money increase.
File photo of Novak Djokovic with the trophy at Wimbledon.
There has been a rise of seven percent
from the 1.76 million pounds paid to the singles champions in 2014, with
overall prize money leaping from 14.6 million pounds to 26.75 million
pounds in the past four years.
It preserves the tournament's status as the highest-paying competition in professional tennis.
"Without the world's best tennis
players, we wouldn't have the world's best tennis tournament," All
England Lawn Tennis Club chairman Philip Brook told a press conference.
"And we recognise the players are an
essential ingredient of our championships. The level of prize money is
affordable to this championship, so we feel it's important that we
should reflect that in what we pay the players."
Brook also confirmed that Wimbledon
chiefs had "reluctantly" turned down the chance to host Great Britain's
Davis Cup quarter-final against France on July 17-19, which is instead
taking place at Queen's Club.
"We took a look at hosting the Davis Cup
at Wimbledon, and we took some very sound advice and we were counselled
not to do it," he said.
"The week after the championships,
there's a lot of work going on at the site, and there are things that
need to happen in that first week.
"So reluctantly we said we weren't
available, and obviously we wish the British team the best of luck and
the Queen's Club the best of luck hosting the tie."
This year's Wimbledon will take place
from June 29 to July 12, with Serbia's Novak Djokovic and Petra Kvitova
of the Czech Republic the respective defending champions in the men's
and women's events.
Kvitova confirmed on Tuesday that she
will prepare for this year's tournament by competing in the grass court
event at Eastbourne, where she finished runner-up in 2011.
Source: AFP
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