Andy Murray’s £1.6m Wimbledon bonanza . . . if he can win

 
Getty
Chris Jones23 April 2013

Andy Murray will pick up £1.6million this summer if he becomes the first British men’s winner of Wimbledon for 77 years.

The All England Club today announced a staggering £22.6m prize fund — the biggest of any of the four Grand Slams — for this year’s Championships, which start on Monday June 24.

The players’ pot has gone up by £6.5m, or 40 per cent, from last year, which is the largest single increase in the history of professional tennis.

And, as expected, organisers today confirmed they will put a roof on No1 court in time for the 2019 Championships.

The 2013 singles champions will pocket £1.6m, a £450,000 increase on the £1.15m banked by Roger Federer and Serena Williams last year. There is also a substantial increase for early-round losers.

The announcement follows extensive discussions between the star performers and Grand Slam organisers to try and ensure players share more of the money generated by the major tournaments.Wimbledon has now eclipsed the US Open, which will offer around £22m prize money when Murray defends his title starting on August 26. However, the prize money is likely to exceed £33m by 2017.

The Australian Open’s prize fund in January was £20.3m, including £1.64m for the singles winners.

The French Open singles winners will get £1.3m — a rise of 20 per cent on 2012 — while second, third and fourth-round losers will earn 25 per cent more.

In July last year, the All England Club announced that from 2015 the dates of Wimbledon will move back by one week (June 29-July 12) to create a three-week gap between the French Open and Wimbledon.

Philip Brook, chairman of the All England Club and the Championships, said today: “I would like to thank all those whose contribution to Wimbledon’s success both on and off court has today enabled us to announce these significant levels of investment in the Championships.

“For the players, it is a deep appreciation of the demanding nature of professional tennis and the top-quality entertainment they bring, while for the Championships it is about giving all of our visitors the finest stage on which to enjoy Wimbledon.”

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in