The Wimbledon singles champions will bank a record £3m this year - an increase of 11.1 per cent on the £2.7m last year. And even first-round losers will get £66,000 each, a part of a total prize fund of £53m. Total prize money has gone up by seven per cent - less than the 11.9% increase last year. With the Professional Tennis Players’ Association lodging a court action over issues including prize money, the Wimbledon prize money has now increased by 60% over the last decade.

Carlos Alcaraz is the red-hot favourite to defend his crown at SW19, off the back of a five-set thrilling victory at the French Open over Jannik Sinner. And he would receive more money than his title last year if he repeats his heroics on British grass.

Wimbledon, in addition to the French, US and Australian Opens, offer equal prize money for male and female stars. Barbora Krejcikova is out to retain her crown, though suffered a disappointing start to the new grass season in defeat to Slovakia's Rebecca Sramkova in the first round of Queen's.

First-round losers at the All England Club will bank £66k, an increase of £6k from last year's tournament.

The increase in funds has nearly doubled over the past decade. Novak Djokovic and Serena Williams, respective champions in 2015, won £1.88m at the time.

Wimbledon also announced a similar prize money increase in 2024, which was a 15 per cent increase on the previous year's finals earnings.

Last year, Wimbledon announced that tickets for the finals will reach record prices, with a new policy seeing seats split into three categories on Centre Court.

The cheapest ticket to watch the weekend finals fetches £240, while the most expensive comes in at £315.

A spokesperson for Wimbledon said: "Very careful consideration is given when setting ticket prices for the Championships, with the greatest price increase applied to premium seats on Centre Court and No 1 Court. Twenty per cent of all tickets have had prices frozen at 2024 levels, including grounds passes.

"We were very pleased to receive a record number of applications [for the ballot], including strong interest from fans in the US, Italy, Ireland and Germany.”