The French Open announced an 8% increase to its prize money for the 2019 tournament on Thursday, with the men’s and women’s singles winners to take home 2.3 million euros ($2.62 million).
Roland Garros remains the Grand Slam event with the leastprize money on offer for the winners, some way short of the $3.8 millionclaimed by last year’s US Open champions, Novak Djokovic and Naomi Osaka.
But French Opentournament director Guy Forget wanted to narrow the gap between the championsand players who exit in the opening week, with first-round losers given a15-percent rise to 46,000 euros.
There have also been significant increases to the prizemoney available for losing in qualifying, with players who fall at the lasthurdle before the main draw to take home 24,000 euros.
Last year saw eight luckylosers play in the men’s draw after the introduction of rule changes designedto deter injured players from only appearing in order to collect thefirst-round prize money.
This year’s French Open starts on May 26, with the men’s final on June 9. A