The prize pool for the 2020 Australian Open has been boosted by 14% to A$71mn ($49.1mn), organisers said yesterday, with the biggest gains for players exiting in the early rounds.
Players losing in the first round of qualifying at the year’s first Grand Slam will take home A$20,000, up by a third from last year, while singles players who exit in the first round of the main draw will earn A$90,000, a jump of 20%.
Before the start of the 2018 Australian Open, Serb champion Novak Djokovic had to distance himself from media reports that he had pushed for a revolt over the way revenues from the four Grand Slams were distributed to help reward a larger group of players.
“We have long been committed to improving the pay and conditions for a deeper pool of international tennis players,” tournament director Craig Tiley said in a statement, noting that overall prize money has more than tripled since 2007.
“This year... we pushed to reward players competing early in the tournament in both singles and doubles.”
The 2020 women’s and men’s singles champions will receive smaller increases in prize money, with both winners taking home A$4.12mn, up $20,000.
Players can usually secure a main draw appearance in the tournament, which starts on Jan. 20, by having a ranking in the top 100.
Naomi Osaka of Japan is the reigning women’s singles champion at the Australian Open while Djokovic claimed a record seventh title by defeating great rival Rafa Nadal in the 2019 final.
In a report published last year, an International Review Panel commissioned to address betting-related and other integrity issues said that players in the lowest tiers were susceptible to being corrupted because of the difficulty of making a living, with only 250-350 players earning enough money to break even.
The International Tennis Federation last week announced a series of measures as part of its fight against corruption in the sport’s lower levels.
Meanwhile, US Open champion Bianca Andreescu yesterday pulled out of her Australian Open warm-up tournament, the Auckland WTA Classic, as she continues to be plagued by a knee injury.  The Canadian 19-year-old sensation, who rocketed through the rankings from 152 to number five in the world this year and referred to 2019 as her “Cinderella story”, was billed as the top-seed in Auckland. 
But she has been forced out by “ongoing knee issues”, tournament organisers said in a brief statement with no mention on whether her start in the Australian Open was also in jeopardy. 
Andreescu won three prestigious titles this year — Indian Wells, Toronto and at the US Open — before her season was cut short by injury. 
She spent nearly seven weeks off the court after her knee gave way during the WTA Finals in Shenzhen in early November, but told reporters earlier this month she did not need surgery and was “just trying to rehab as much as possible and stay as positive as I can.”
Serena Williams will now become the top seed in the Auckland tournament which starts on January 6.