Praise the tennis gods – we’re back at the All-England club after a two-year hiatus.
The Grand Slam tournament played on the iconic grass courts of Wimbledon was cancelled in 2020 because of the impact of the pandemic.
That means 2019 champions Novak Djokovic and Simona Halep have had to defend their titles a year later than expected. Although Halep is unfortunately missing through injury.
However, coronavirus didn’t just effect the scheduling. It’s had a pretty profound impact on the tournament’s prize money too.
What is the capacity at Wimbledon this year?
On the first day of the tournament this year, the courts were at half capacity.
Thankfully, Wimbledon is part of the UK government’s plans to test out fan capacity at major events.
That means by the time the finals roll around on the weekend of 10-11 July, that initial 50% capacity should be back to 100%.
So for Centre Court that would mean a full 15,000-capacity crowd should be in attendance.
What is the total prize money at Wimbledon in 2021?
This year’s total prize money for the tournament is £35 million, which will be distributed accordingly at each stage of the competition.
That figure is down from £38 million in 2019, largely due to the impact of covid.
However, as usual, men and women will receive equal prize money. That has been standard at Wimbledon since 2008.
Welcome To Wimbledon 2021 | Drone Around The Grounds Trailer
How much will the winners get?
The winners this year will receive £1.7m each.
That may seem a lot, but again it’s a fairly steep drop from where it was in 2019.
That year’s champions – Djokovic and Halep – each received £2.35m.
Breakdown of the Wimbledon payout by round
Despite the overall tournament prize money being less than in previous years, the prize money on offer from the first round to the quarter-finals has increased.
This is part of an initiative from the tournament to reward those less-established pros and make exceeding expectations even more lucrative to lower-ranked players.
Here’s the full Wimbledon 2021 payout by round.
Winner: £1,700,000
Finalist: £900,000
Semi-finalist: £465,000
Quarter-finalist: £300,000
Fourth Round: £181,000
Third Round: £115,000
Second Round: £75,000
First Round: £48,000