Record prize pot of £40m as SW19 recovers from Covid

WIMBLEDON this year may be deprived of ranking points, but the players will be taking home more money than ever. The All England Club yesterday announced that players who lose in the first round will earn £50,000 and the champions £2million each as part of a record overall prize pot of £40.35m. That represents an 11.1-per-cent increase on last year, which was still affected by the pandemic, and a 5.4-per-cent rise from 2019, when The Championships were last held with full crowds. There has been no reduction to account for the fact this year’s tournament has been stripped of ranking points. That was the sanction placed on Wimbledon by the ATP and WTA Tours for banning players from Russia and Belarus. The size of the purse will ensure other no-shows will be small to non-existent. The biggest rise will go to those playing in qualifying, a whopping 26 per cent up on last year. Even the most humble qualifier who loses in the first round of the preliminaries will earn £11,000. There is also a big pay rise for those playing in the mixed doubles. They will enjoy an overall increase of 17.6 per cent. The wheelchair tournament is also enjoying a substantial boost. Ian Hewitt, chairman of the All England Club, said: ‘The prize money distribution aims to reflect just how important the players are to The Championships as we look to continue to deliver one of the world’s leading sporting events.’ Meanwhile, Andy Murray bagged an impressive win over No7 seed Alexander Bublik at the Stuttgart Open, beating the Kazakh 6-3, 7-6 to set up a quarter-final against Stefanos Tsitsipas.