Tennis Betting Odds: No more gender gap in Wimbledon prize money
Roger Federer will not be the lone big-money winner at Wimbledon in 2007.
When the gates of the All England Club open for Wimbledon this summer, there will still be tentacles of ivy crawling up its stadium walls and players dressed pristinely in white.
But, as club executives announced yesterday, at least one thing will change: The tournament will award equal prize money to men and women for the first time.
Wimbledon, the oldest of tennis’s four Grand Slam events, joins the United States Open and the Australian Open in handing out equal prize money to all male and female competitors for similar finishes. The United States Open has done so since 1973, the Australian Open since 2001.
The French Open gives equal prize money to only the men’s and women’s singles champions, a practice it began in 2006.
The decision reversed a custom at Wimbledon that started in 1968, when the Open era began and professionals started competing at the club. That year, King, the women’s singles champion, earned £750, while Rod Laver, the men’s champion, received £2,000.
That gap in prize money had narrowed over the years. Last year, the paycheck for Amélie Mauresmo, the women’s champion, was £625,000 (then worth $1.15 million). She made about 95 percent of the amount won by the men’s champion, Roger Federer, who earned £655,000 (then worth $1.2 million).
The prize money for this year’s two-week tournament, which begins June 25, will be announced in April.
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Wimbledon Odds Prediction: Andy Roddick to win this time.
