Wimbledon increases prize money

Landmark event: This year’s championships at Wimbledon marks the 150th anniversary of the club, 50 years of Open tennis and 125 years of the women’s singles championships.

Wimbledon on Tuesday announced it was hiking its total prize pot for the 2018 tennis championships to £34 million, up 7.6%. That pool includes prizes of £2.25 million each for the men’s and women’s champions.

Organisers also issued a warning that players who compete while knowingly carrying an injury, and quit mid-match, face being docked all their first-round prize money. Under the new rule, if an injured player withdraws on site after midday on the Thursday before the Championships he/she will receive 50% of the first-round prize money. The replacement “lucky-loser” will get the other 50%.

In addition to stripping players of their first-round prize money if they pull out of a match or perform to what the club deems “below professional standards”, it will strictly enforce warm-up timing to speed up the game, but will also extend the time allowed between points from 20 to 25 seconds.