Wimbledon to become richest tournament ever

London: The Wimbledon is reportedly set to be the richest tennis tournament to be ever staged following the All England Club`s announcement of a massive 40 percent hike in the prize pool for the tournament`s championships to be held this summer.

The prize money will now be worth a reported 22.6 million pounds. According to the All England Club chairman Philip Brook, although the economy is not stable at the moment, they had to take the step because of increased competition with other international tennis events, adding that they also wanted to demonstrate their appreciation for the players by increasing the prize money. The report further said that the change to prize-money will see the winners of the men`s and women`s singles title take away 1.6 million pounds, compared to 1.15 million pounds last year, adding that even players losing in early rounds will see a 60 percent rise in their rewards. Insisting on the need to make the sport more competitive and more attractive to the next generation of talent, All England Club chief executive Richard Lewis said that the decision to increase the prize money of defeated players has been taken so that those players do not lose their interest from the sport and be aware that they can still make a good living. Allaying fears that the Wimbledon Master Plan, which also contains a proposal to build a retractable roof on court one for the start of the 2019 tournament, will take the money from fans, Brook said that the plan is an affordable increase in terms of their overall operations at Wimbledon. Brook further said that there will be no significant changes in the ticket prices for 2014. ANI