Wimbledon takes prize purse to £34 million, rings in policy changes

LONDON: Wimbledon on Tuesday announced it was hiking its total prize pot for the 2018 tennis championships to £34 million ($46.57 million), up 7.6 percent from last year.

That pool includes prizes of £2.25 million each for the men’s and women’s champions — an increase on the £2.2 million they received in 2017.

The prize money eclipses the Aus $55 million ($41.32 million) paid out in Melbourne, but at current exchange rates is just shy of the €39.2 million ($47.18 mn) on offer at the French Open starting this month.

Central to the “greening” of the championships is a ban on plastic straws — some 400,000 were used at last year’s tournament — the introduction of electric vehicles in the courtesy car fleet etc.

50:50 RULE TO PREVENT INJURY WITHDRAWLS

Wimbledon officials warned players they face losing prize money if they withdraw after competing with an existing injury and are not perceived to have given maximum effort.

The All England Club will introduce the “50:50” rule this year in an attempt to prevent injury withdrawals in the opening round of the singles events.

Several players were widely criticised last year when they played in first-round matches at Wimbledon, despite being clearly unfit, in order to claim the prize money for losing at that stage. There were a total of seven mid-match withdrawals in the 2017 . With an increased purse on offer to first-round losers this year, tournament chiefs are keen to clampdown on the issue.

Players will now be able to claim 50 percent of their firstround prize money if they withdraw on site by the Thursday before the start of the main draw.

An injured player’s replacement would take the other 50 percent of the prize money. But anyone who competes in the first round and “retires or performs below professional standards” could now be fined entire money.