The 138th edition of Wimbledon begins Monday with a record prize pool, a galvanizing top-tier rivalry in men’s singles, and a wide-open women’s field that continues a trend of unpredictability there.
The oldest of the tennis majors will feature a 2025 prize pool of nearly $73 million, a tournament record and up by 7% from a year ago. Men’s and women’s singles champions will each take home close to $4.1 million, up 11%. More notably, the total tournament prize pool is twice the level of a decade ago, as players have successfully lobbied for greater shares of tournament profits.
“We’re immensely proud of the fact that if you look back 10 years, you can see the increase over that period and has 7% this year,” All England Club chair Deborah Jevans said. “We have listened to the players, we have engaged with the players.”
The Wimbledon purse, though eclipsed by the $75 million the US Open awarded last year, will be increased for 2025, and remains an important influence on player compensation throughout tennis.
“The focus on just the prize money at four events, the Grand Slams, does not get to the heart of what the challenge is for tennis,” Jevans said. “The challenge with tennis is the fact that the players don’t have an offseason which they want, they have increasing injuries that they’re speaking about, and we’ve always aid that we, as Wimbledon, are willing to engage and talk with the tours to try and find solutions, and that remains open.”
Competitive Factors
In the men’s bracket, two-time defending champion Carlos Alcaraz will enter as the No. 2 seed, fresh off his epic title win over top rival Jannik Sinner in the French Open. Sinner is the No. 1 seed and still the top-ranked men’s player in the world. The deepening rivalry between Alcaraz and Sinner has helped bring the sport into a new era after a prior one led by Novak Djokovic, Roger Federer, and Rafael Nadal. Alcaraz and Sinner have combined to win the last six Grand Slam tournament titles.
If Alcaraz wins a third-straight Wimbledon title, he will be just the second player in the Open Era of tennis after Bjorn Borg to win both the French Open and Wimbledon in consecutive years.
Djokovic, however, is hardly out of the mix as the seven-time Wimbledon winner is the No. 6 seed in the tournament this year. He is on the same side of the bracket as Sinner and in line to face the Italian in the semifinals.
The women’s field, meanwhile, is led by top seed Aryna Sabalenka and No. 2 Coco Gauff. The last six Grand Slam titles, however, have been claimed by four different players. A wide-open field is made more so as defending champion Barbora Krejcikova, back as the No. 17 seed, is battling a thigh injury, and her effectiveness is uncertain.
Separate from the competition or the prize money, there is a rising local battle over the All England Club’s ambitious effort to triple its footprint.
