Wimbledon chiefs dispute players’ revenue claims as prize money row deepens

Novak Djokovic against Yibing Wu of China in their first-round match, won by the Serb, on day one of Wimbledon. Photograph: Matthew Stockman/Getty Images

The All England Club (AELTC) is questioning the players’ claim that they receive 22% of tournament revenues in prize money from the men’s Association of Tennis Professionals and the Women’s Tennis Association tours as the row over their remuneration and welfare rumbles on.

Sally Bolton, the AELTC chief executive, said on Monday it had requested “financial information” from the players shortly after they announced they had cancelled a planned protest in limiting media activity for the first week of Wimbledon. Bolton declined to go into further details, but the Guardian has learned the AELTC is querying whether the prize money awarded by the tours is as generous as the players claim.