Prize money at this year's French Open will rise by 12%, with the "lion's share of the increase for early-round losers, but the singles champions will still receive less than at the three other grand slams," according to Brian Love of REUTERS. The French Tennis Federation (FFT) said on Tuesday that the total prize pool at Roland Garros this year had risen to €28.03M ($29.85M), with €1.8M ($1.9M) for the singles champions -- a rise of €150,000 ($159,700) on '14. The FFT said in a statement that payouts for second and third round losers will rise by around 20%, with those "surviving one round" pocketing at least €50,000 ($53,200) (REUTERS, 4/14). In London, Barry Flatman reported the rich "can be expected to get considerably richer at this year's French Open," but the claycourt grand-slam tournament will "continue to be the poor relation of the game's four majors." Should "history repeat itself" and Rafael Nadal or Maria Sharapova wins, they will each receive €1.8M, €150,000 more than they did for last year's victories. However, on current exchange rates, the Parisian top prize equates to £1.3M, which "still lags considerably behind" the £1.76M that Novak
Djokovic and Petra Kvitová won at Wimbledon last July. The French Open "habitually lags behind its three grand slam-tournament cousins
because the FFT continues to hold money back for grandiose building plans to
extend Roland Garros that currently are being put on hold" after a new study
of land use by the Paris City Council a month ago (LONDON TIMES, 4/14).
