The China Mail - Players welcome 'step forward' after Wimbledon prize money increase

The All England Club announced on Thursday that the total prize pot for this year's tournament has been raised to £64.2 million ($85.7 million).

The Wimbledon singles' champions will now pocket £3.6 million each.

Even first-round losers will be richly compensated at Wimbledon, with £80,000 allocated to players beaten at that stage.

The Wimbledon raise comes after several of the world's top players staged a protest prior to the recent French Open by limiting media activities to 15 minutes.

The players were frustrated that prize money at Roland Garros only increased by 9.5 percent from 2025 and stayed at around 15 percent of the revenue generated from the clay-court tournament.

Representatives for players from the ATP and WTA Tours were pleased with the decision by Wimbledon organisers.

"Leading players from the ATP and WTA Tours welcome Wimbledon's 2026 prize money announcement as a genuine and significant step forward - the 20 percent increase is the largest single-year uplift in the tournament's history and a meaningful signal of intent," a statement said.

"Players want to see Wimbledon continue to thrive and support the investment the tournament makes in the game.

"The question has never been whether those investments are valuable, but whether the athletes whose performances drive the event's global success should receive a fair share of its tremendous financial growth."

Wimbledon's increase is from £53.5 million last year to £64.2 million for this year's event, which starts in south-west London on June 29.

However, the players argued the increase represents 14.4 percent of projected revenues for Wimbledon which is still below the 14.9 per cent figure allocated for prize money in 2015.

They had proposed the amount be raised to 16 percent (£71.2m) as "a meaningful interim step" towards their calls for it to be lifted to 22 percent, in line with leading tour events, by 2030.

"Our goal is not to diminish that success, it is to ensure that its continued growth benefits equitably everyone who contributes to it," the statement said.

"At the same time, players are clear that (Thursday's) announcement, while genuinely welcomed, does not yet resolve the structural issues they have been raising with the Grand Slams for the past year. Progress on those issues remains outstanding."

B.Carter--ThChM