The All England Tennis club has announced the prize money for the recently cancelled Wimbledon Grand Slam. A total of 620 players are set to benefit from the 10m insurance fund thanks to the tournament’s pandemic insurance policy. Wimbledon was cancelled this year for the first time since World War 2 due to the ongoing pandemic.
Based on the world ranking, 224 players who would have competed in the qualifying would receive GBP12,500 while the 256 players that would have competed in the main draw are set to receive GBP25,000. 120 players who would have competed in the main draw of the doubles are set to receive GBP 6,250 each. WHeel chair event participants will each receive GBP 6,000.
AELTS Chief has expressed his pleasure that the insurance policy will help a number of tennis players during this difficult time. “Immediately following the cancellation of The Championships, we turned our attention to how we could assist those who help make Wimbledon happen,” he said. “We know these months of uncertainty have been very worrying for these groups, including the players, many of whom have faced financial difficulty during this period and who would have quite rightly anticipated the opportunity to earn prize money at Wimbledon based on their world ranking.”
He further added, “We are pleased that our insurance policy has allowed us to recognise the impact of the cancellation on the players and that we are now in a position to offer this payment as a reward for the hard work they have invested in building their ranking to a point where they would have gained direct entry into The Championships 2020.”
The AELTS earlier announced that the grass-court seeding is outdated and seeding will be based purely on the world rankings in future. The seedings for the women’s draw will remain the same.
