£29k for losing at Wimbledon!

WimBleDon’S champions will be rewarded like never before this summer and those in the chorus line will earn thousands too. in the event of andy murray repeating his triumph of 2013, he would collect £1.88million, part of an overall seven per cent increase that takes the total prize pot to £26.75m.

even non-qualifiers benefit, with first-round losers in the preliminaries at Roehampton getting £3,625 with £14,500 for third round losers.

First-round losers in the main event will make £29,000 and winning just one match boosts that to £47,000.

it is all part of Wimbledon’s support for those on the lower rungs of the tour, who often struggle to eke out a living if they are outside the top 150.

as for the riches for the superstars of the game, all england Club Chairman Philip Brook is unrepentant about what they are entitled to. ‘ Without the world’s best tennis players we wouldn’t have the world’s best tennis tournament,’ he said.

‘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. i think you’ve seen now that some other tournaments are reacting to what we did two years ago.’

The money on offer means that total prizemoney has almost doubled from £14.6m in 2011.

This year there will also be a three- week gap between the French open and Wimbledon, which goes back a week into mid- July, a move which has resulted in a strong field at Queen’s Club for the aeGon Championships that now has seven of the world’s top 12 players, including murray and Rafael nadal.

it also means that players have little excuse not to turn up properly prepared.

‘i hope they will come rested and ready to compete on grass,’ added Brook. ‘We hope everyone will compete at some stage over the three weeks. By competing you can test your body and your movement. We’ve created more opportunities to play so hopefully they will take it.’

all england Club chief executive Richard lewis dismissed reports that Wimbledon will go the same way as other major events and leave the BBC, or see it become only a joint host broadcaster.

He said: ‘ There’s absolutely no reason to see it change. You never say never but certainly not in the foreseeable future.’