Tennis Wimbledon prize money: Wimbledon chiefs yesterday moved to head off criticism of the continued difference in prize money between men and women at this summer's championships.
The All England Club have announced a 4.8 per cent increase in singles prize money for the 2004 tournament which starts on June 21st. It means the £575,000 ( Switzerland's Roger Federer won as men's champion last year will increase to £602,500 ( for whoever lifts the trophy this time. The women's prize also goes up by 4.8 per cent, from £535,000 (€803,476) to £565,500 (841,823).
Total prize money, including the qualifying competition, will now be £9,707,280 (14.575,347), which is 3.6 per cent on last year when more emphasis was placed on the singles championship.
However, the pay differential between men and women will remain a controversy with the All England Club having come in for criticism from Martina Navratilova and Billie-Jean King in years gone by. But Tim Phillips, chairman of the club and the championships, said: "Both singles champions winners will receive in excess of a million dollars on the basis of the current monetary exchange rate.
"I was at a meeting in Los Angeles earlier this year where I gave the WTA (Women's Tennis Association) a presentation on why we do what we do with prize money and they gave their perspective at a dinner here in London some time later.
"But we have not been persuaded. We are just trying to be fair to men and women. Don't forget, the ladies' prize pot is over $4.5 million."
The All England Club have, however, finally given way to pressure for the installation of a retractable roof over Centre Court, which could be in place by the 2009 championships.
Phillips confirmed the planning application went into Merton Borough Council in January but was not expected to be heard until after this year's event.
There will again be many new features at Wimbledon this summer, with a new museum under construction and six new practice courts. The Olympic torch will begin the London leg of its journey from centre court on the middle Saturday of the 04 championships. And millions of new fans across Asia will be able to tune in following the club's new agreement with the ESPN Star Sports television station.
But with terrorism a growing threat Phillips warned security would be more stringent. This will include the removal of the left luggage inside the grounds and extra searching of spectators.
But Phillips is desperate not to turn Wimbledon into an entirely all-ticket pre-ordered event. He said: "We don't want to lose the wonderful tradition of queuing for tickets on the day at Wimbledon, but we need to manage those queues and we were with how we did it last year. This time there will be around 500 centre court tickets on sale every day, in line with number one and number two courts."
