Even if you are not interested in tennis, you might be interested in money. This year's Wimbledon tournament in England is offering the highest amount of prize money to date for it's singles champions. Although the tournament has always offered their winners lucrative prizes for being number one, this year it is higher than ever. Both the men's and women's singles champion will receive $1.4 million dollars for winning.
"No tennis tournament has ever offered higher prize money than Wimbledon in 2007," Tim Phillips, chairman of the All England Club said.
The total in prize purse for the 2006 England Wimbledon was 8.7 percent lower than this years. The women's first place prize purse rose 12 percent since last year while the men's first place prize purse rose only 6.9 percent. The difference in percentage increases was due to a decision made in February, which stated that the men's and women's champions would receive equal amounts in prize money. Until that decision the men's champion received more money than the women's each year.
"We want to reward the players appropriately for the talent, entertainment and drama they bring to the grass courts of Wimbledon."
Part of their decision was based on the other 3 major Grand Slams in tennis. Until February Wimbledon was the only tournament of that status that did not offer equal prize checks to their male and female winners.
Organizers of the tournament also announced that they will now be using the HawkEye instant replay system on Centre Court as well as Court One. HawkEye is a high speed multi-camera system that offers superior coverage to high paced activities such as serves and intense volleys. The HawkEye was first used in a Grand Slam in 2005 at the U.S. Open. It has also been used for several years in the Australian Open.
"We want this to be the premier tennis tournament in the world, that's why we are doing so much work on Centre Court," Phillips told reporters.
Both of these changes have been made by the organizers of Wimbledon, England in an effort to improve the game. They wanted to reward the athletes equally for their participation in the tournament, so they made the prize purses equal for males and females. They also wanted to reward the
fans for their commitment to the sport, so they invested in the HawkEye system for better coverage of the event for viewers at home. In my opinion these changes can only help the tournament. I think it is about time the prize amounts were equal for the men's and women's events. There is no reason for men to receive more prize money for the same task in the year 2007. It will also be exciting to see how the new HawkEye system depicts the game on television. I think it will be exciting to see the high speed multi-camera system in action.
1 comment:
It is nice to see more money on the tennis courts, especially for the biggest tournament, Wimbledon. I don't think that it is fair for the men to win the same as the women on tennis championships. They are not performing the same tasks. Men are playing best of 3 sets and women are playing best of 2. The excitement and revenue that men bring is a lot more. Don't get me wrong it is nice to see women competing for big bucks, but it is not as thrilling as watching serves that are 130 mph.
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