Wimbledon announced its prize money for the '99 event
as the women's singles champion will receive $655,200 this
year, but still $72,800 less than the $728,000 the men's
champion will receive. The event's total purse did increase
5.4% over last year, up to $12.16M. Despite the WTA Tour's
call for equal prize money for the Grand Slam event, All-
England Tennis Club Chair John Curry said, "We do surveys of
all the people who come on a regular basis and, in three
surveys over the past 10 years, 70% of the people say that
first and foremost, the thing they want to watch is men's
singles." But WTA Tour CEO Bart McGuire said that the women
"expected more and merit more" (USA TODAY, 4/30). In N.Y.,
Robin Finn writes that the "previously undervalued" women's
doubles competition had its prize money raised 10%, but that
"did nothing to mitigate the 20 percent wage disparity"
between the men's and women's purse (N.Y. TIMES, 4/30).
GIVE THE WOMEN WHAT THEY WANT? The AP's Steve Wilstein
writes that Wimbledon "would not be what it is if it didn't
have the women" (AP, 4/30). In Miami, Linda Robertson
writes, "It's not only time for Wimbledon to do the right
thing, but to recognize that women's tennis has supplanted
men's tennis at the top of the marquee. The women's game is
more entertaining, as are the women who play it." Women's
tennis has "personalities, the rivalries, the story lines
that men's tennis used to have" (MIAMI HERALD, 4/30). But
in London, Alix Ramsay writes that women's tennis "may be
[the] flavour of the month," but at Wimbledon "some
traditions die hard." Curry, on the WTA's call for equal
prize money in Grand Slams: "It seems strange that they're
demanding 100 percent prize-money when the WTA pays 50
percent less than is paid at ATP tournaments" (TIMES, 4/30).
