Women making ground but still lag behind men

Wimbledon will offer the most prizemoney in the history of tennis for its 2005 championships, increasing the pool to more than £10 million.

Women, however, will continue to be paid less than their male counterparts at the June 20th to July 3rd grasscourt grand slam, organisers said yesterday.

"Our decisions are always made on market forces and, in our judgment, this is a fair decision to make," All England Club chairman Tim Phillips said .

Total prizemoney was increased by 3.9 per cent up to a pool of £10,085,510 (€14,812,370).

That eclipses the previous best of $17.75 million (€13,697,500) offered by the 2004 US Open before any bonuses from their hardcourt season were factored in. The 2004 French Open prize pot was 13.26 million while the 2005 Australian Open paid out 19.1 million Australian dollars (11,455,000).

This year the Wimbledon men's singles champion will earn £630,000 (€925,455). The champion woman will get £600,000 (€881,400). The women are closing the gap. Their prizemoney for the singles was improved by 5.9 per cent while the men's rose by 4.6 per cent.

While appreciating the move was a "step in the right direction", the Women's Tennis Association (WTA) stressed their continued commitment to ensuring parity with the male players.

Their statement read: "The Sony Ericsson WTA Tour is encouraged by Wimbledon's decisions to both increase prize money for, and narrow the prize-money gap between, female and male players.

"The remarkable quality and depth of play demonstrated by women's professional tennis players, combined with the global popularity and media and sponsor interest in our players, merits equal prizemoney at the Grand Slams."

Phillips, though, maintained the decision was "fair" and one based on "market forces". "We are delighted to recognise the current stature of the women's game," he said. "The prizemoney available on the WTA Tour is still less than that on the ATP Tour and there are only two tournaments in the world that pay men and women the same (the Australian and US Opens).

"Women earn more per minute played and more per game. The bottom line is you get all this information and you have to make a judgment."

TOTAL PRIZEMONEY

Wimbledon 200514.8m

US Open 2004€13.7m

French Open 2004€13.3m

Australian Open 2005€11.5m

WIMBLEDON 2005 WINNERS

Men's singles€925,455

Women's singles €881,400