<p>All England Club chiefs revealed the substantial cash boost for players during a pre-tournament press conference on Thursday.</p><p>The Wimbledon singles champions will now pocket £3.6 million each.</p><p>Italy's Jannik Sinner is the reigning men's champion, while Poland's Iga Swiatek won the women's event last year.</p><p><strong>Even first-round losers will be richly compensated at Wimbledon this year, with £80,000 allocated to players beaten at that stage.</strong></p><p>The Wimbledon raise comes after several of the world's top players staged a protest before the recent French Open by limiting media activities to 15 minutes.</p><p>The players were frustrated that prize money at Roland Garros only increased by 9.5% from 2025 and stayed at around 15% of the revenue generated from the clay-court tournament.</p><p>It is believed the players want the prize fund to be closer to 22% of the tournament's revenue.</p><p>Wimbledon's increase is from £53.5 million last year to £64.2 million for this year's event, which starts in south-west London on June 29.</p><p><strong>"I recognise there is one topic you are most interested in hearing about this morning and that's prize money,"</strong> Wimbledon chair Debbie Jevans told reporters on Thursday.</p><p><strong>"For 2026, the prize money fund will be £64.2 million, which is a 20% increase on last year and a £10.7 million uplift, which allows players to continue to share in our success.</strong></p><p><strong>"Our support for players is distributed throughout the draw. Gentleman and Ladies singles champions will each receive £3.6 million and first-round prize money is set at £80,000, so players who lose in the first round will share more than £5 million in prize money.</strong></p><p><strong>"These figures represent a substantial increase in prize money."</strong></p><p>Wimbledon CEO Sally Bolton met with the players' representative Larry Scott at Roland Garros last month to discuss the prize money issue.</p><p><strong>"There has been no dialogue with the players directly, but we have had dialogue with Larry Scott, who has been appointed by some of players to represent them,"</strong> Jevans said.</p><p><strong>"We have had dialogue, email exchanges and a meeting in Paris. After Paris you have all read the 22% and £70 million, what we have done is right and appropriate.</strong></p><p><strong>"We begin looking at prize money in January. We looked at investment in facilities, in grassroots and player prize money. I would hope the players would welcome it."</strong></p>