Wimbledon says it's being fair to the men by paying them more than the women. The women call it sex discrimination.
The All England Club announced Tuesday that the men's champion will receive ?655,000 (946,381 euros) and the women's winner will get ?625,000 (903,036 euros). That's a 4 percent increase for both in British currency.
Wimbledon remains the only Grand Slam tournament without equal prizes for the two champions.
"This issue is one of a judgment on fairness," All England Club chairman Tim Phillips said. "We believe that what we do at the moment is actually fair to the men as well as to the women."
That's not the view of defending champion and three-time winner Venus Williams, who didn't rule out a possible boycott.
"We want to be treated equally as the men," she told BBC Radio before Wimbledon's announcement. "This is not just about women's tennis but about women all over the world. At Wimbledon we would like to have equal prize money to prove that we are equal on all fronts."
Billie Jean King, who won a record 20 Wimbledon titles in singles, doubles and mixed doubles, said she was disappointed by the decision.
"It has been 33 years since the US Open delivered on their commitment to equality and provided equal prize money for men and women," King said.
"Over the years Wimbledon has always been one of the leaders in our sport in so many areas. Because of that, it is truly amazing to me that all of these years later they still have not stepped up and done the right thing on the prize money issue."
The French Open announced earlier this month that it would pay the men's and women's champions the same amount for the first time, although the overall prize fund is bigger for the men. The two other Grand Slam tournaments -- the Australian and US Opens -- have paid equal prize money for years.
WTA Tour chief executive Larry Scott accused Wimbledon of taking a "Victorian era view" on pay.
"In the 21st century, it is morally indefensible that women competitors in a Grand Slam tournament should be receiving considerably less prize money than their male counterparts," he said in a statement.
Overall, prize money for the June 26-July 9 championships will be ?10.378 million (14.994 euros), a 2.9 percent increase over last year's total.
Phillips said because top men rarely play in Grand Slam doubles events, they earn less overall than women. In addition, the men play best-of-five set matches, while the women play best-of-three.
"It just doesn't seem right to us that the lady players could play in three events and could take away significantly more than the men's champion who battles away through these best-of-five matches," Phillips said. "We don't see it as an equal rights issue."
With only ?30,000 (43,200 euros) difference of prize money between the men's and women's winners, Phillips said the issue was one of principle.
"Obviously it's something that could be done and we could respond to the pressure that we come under by doing something that we fundamentally don't think would be fair on the men," he said. "We also would point that the top 10 ladies last year earned more from Wimbledon that the top 10 men did."
Phillips said the WTA Tour paid 63 percent less to players in an average week than the ATP Masters Series did.
"Whereas we're 87 percent," Phillips said. "So it seems to me we are much closer to equal prize money than they are on the rest of the tour."
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