LONDON - Wimbledon's prize money will rise 4.7 percent this year but the organisers of the world's most prestigious tennis tournament will continue to pay the men's champion more than the women's winner. The men's champion will receive 435,000 pounds sterling ($727,000) and the women's winner 391,500 pounds. Total prize money will total 7.21 million pounds. The Women's Tennis Association (WTA) has called for many years for Wimbledon to pay men and women equally like the U.S. open.

But Wimbledon Chairman John Curry said there was greater interest among spectators in the men's game and less depth in women's tennis. We can't on a commercial basis meet their demands on this, he told a news conference. (Reuter)