Mixed hero Jamie’s poor return

JAMIE MURRAY and Heather Watson, on opposite sides of the net in the mixed doubles final, both chose to attend Wimbledon’s champions’ dinner on Sunday night. It was a nice perk to go alongside the relatively modest prize-money on offer for an event whose final attracted a near full house on the Centre Court. For winning six matches, Murray and partner Martina Hingis won £100,000 to share between them, which pales into insignificance compared to the riches on offer elsewhere in the tournament. The defeated pair of Watson and Finland’s Henri Kontinen split £50,000. Meanwhile, £35,000 was handed to each first-round singles loser, a handful of whom were not fit to properly compete. It is also four times less than what the finalists of the same-sex doubles received. The rationale is that the mixed is only played at the four Slams, and does not carry any ongoing ranking points. It starts from scratch at each major, and is considered an optional extra. A spokesperson for the All England Club said: ‘We feel the prize-money is at an appropriate level, but like all other events it will be reviewed prior to the 2018 Championships.’