French Open Sees Wimbledon’s Bet…and Raises Too

French Open Sees Wimbledon’s Bet…and Raises Too
April 25th, 2007

Not to be outdone, a day after Wimbledon announced their increase in prize money, the French Open has announced that they’re doing the same.

Prize money at Roland Garros will rise overall more than 7% to US$20.8 million. Winners of the singles championships will receive €1 million each, or US$1.35 million.

As you certainly recall, Wimbledon announced yesterday that prize money would rise 8.7% to $22.6 million, and that singles champions would earn US$1.4 million each.

As far as progressiveness, the French have something else over on the Brits: Roland Garros is the first Grand Slam tournament to offer equal pay for both genders — in both singles and doubles. Yay France!

Winning doubles teams will now earn €290k each. This is up from €260k for the women and €280k for the men in 2006.

The French Open will also continue to be the lone major to begin play on a Sunday, a practice now being adopted by the ATP. Last year marked the first time a Slam began on a Sunday instead of a Monday, and was very well received.

Oh, and in case you forgot, yesterday was Equal Pay Day in the US… which is always a safe bet that it’s time for such announcements in Europe. Natch.

That's good. To join them, TA would have to raise their prizemoney almost 50%

any link for this, I can't find it on google

good but isnt it such crazy money €1 million for winning a tournament!!!! ok i know its sooo tough but prize moneys always increawsing so imagine what It ll be like in say 5 years??? €2 million!!!???!!

Prizemoney will be much higher in 10 years. The WTA and ATP are just starting to understand where the money is, instead of bowing down to a lame and impotent USTA.

Now where is that "donate the money to charity thread"? This is getting ridiculous!

In Dubai they are going to have a horse race for $10 million. That's for 2 minutes.
The money in tennis is still peanuts compared to what's out there. There's tens of millions just waiting for tennis players.
But it's outside the US. It's a global sport, and the WTA and ATP have to spread their wings.