Tennis: Wimbledon announces record prize money of £26.75m

The prolific acceleration in the size of the overall prize money pot at Wimbledon is slowing but the grass court championships remains the richest of the four grand slams.

All England Club officials on 28 April announced a 7% overall rise, down from 10.5% last year, meaning overall prize money has surged by an eye-popping 152% since 2011 to £26.75m ($40.90m). Last year's US Open had total prize money of $38m.

"Without the world's best tennis players we wouldn't have the world's best tennis tournament," the All England Club chairman Philip Brook told reporters.

"This level of prize money is affordable for the championships and we feel it is important that we should reflect that in what we pay the players.

"We are today announcing another generous increase of 7% in total prize money. So we are taking our total prize money up to £1.75m and to a new level of £26.75m overall. And I should add that after announcing record prize money in 2013 and 2014, at £26.75m Wimbledon prize money will again be the highest money prize ever in professional tennis."

The latest round of increases means the singles champions will each pocket £1.88m compared with the £1.76m handed to Novak Djokovic and Petra Kvitova in 2014.

Prize money for the singles competitions has risen 8% on last year.

"This year our singles champion will receive prize money of £1.88m and more generously on prize money, with regards to singles, after three years of favouring the left hand side of the draw, now we feel we got the balance about right and so for this year there is an overall 8% increase in single prize money broadly the same from round to round – not exactly 8% but broadly 8% from round to round."

Brook explained the rapid rises in prize money for first round losers had slowed, however, with those players failing to survive a round of the singles taking home £29,000.

This year's tournament begins a week later than usual on 29 June, reflecting the All England's Club's drive to create a longer grass court season following the French Open.

"What did we make the change? The change was made very much with the players at its heart and it will allow the players more time to recover from Roland Garros and allow more time to prepare and to prepare on grass for Wimbledon and with an extra week, it will additional competitive opportunities on grass ahead of the Championships," Brook said.

The three-week build-up to the championships will feature new ATP grasscourt events in Stuttgart and Nottingham and a new WTA event in Nottingham while the Queen's Club and Halle tournaments have been bumped up to ATP 500 status. A new WTA grasscourt tournament will start in Mallorca next year.