UNITED KINGDOM: TENNIS - Wimbledon tennis organisers say women players will be paid the same as the men in this year's tournament

Wimbledon will pay women and men equal prize money for the first time at this year's grasscourt grand slam, All England Club chairman Tim Phillips said on Thursday (February 22). The tournament broke with its age old tradition to join the Australian and U.S. Opens in paying equal prize money across the board in all events and in all stages of competition. "This year the committee decided unanimously that time was right to move to equal prize money and bring to a close a long progression," Phillips told a news conference. Wimbledon had been criticised for years for maintaining a discrepancy in the prize money offered to its male and female competitors. Last year Roger Federer earned 655,000 pounds sterling ($1.28 million) for winning the men's title while women's champion Amelie Mauresmo took home 625,000 pounds sterling . The All England Club had previously defended its stand by highlighting that women contested best-of-three-set matches while the men had best of five. The French Open introduced equal pay for their men's and women's singles champions in 2006 but remain the only major tournament not to offer the same prize money throughout the rounds. "When Wimbledon pioneered Open tennis in 1968, the ladies singles champion Billie Jean King got 750 pounds and Rod Laver got 2,000 pounds," Phillips said. "So the ladies champion got 37.5 percent of the money that the men's champion got. By stages that has moved up until in 2006 when Mauresmo won, the precise relativity was 95.4 percent. So the champion was only getting 6 percent less. "We believe... it was time to bring this progression to a close and equalise fully. "Obviously it is good news for the women players... and we also believe it will serve as positive encouragement for women in sport in general but in tennis in particular."

ITN Source | February 23, 2007

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