April 30, 2008	Wednesday	Rabi-us-Sani 23, 1429

LONDON, April 29: Wimbledon bosses have snubbed the idea of scheduling play on the middle Sunday, despite the rain that played havoc with last year’s championships.

The All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club (AELTCC) admitted on Tuesday there were strong arguments in favour of making “People’s Sunday” permanent but threw them out, believing that it would dilute the schedule quality of the regular match days.

The Championships have regularly had to run into the middle Sunday due to bad weather at the tour’s only grass court Grand Slam tournament, which runs this year from June 23 to July 6.

“A 13-day schedule, we feel, is about the right amount of time to get value of matches,” AELTCC chief executive Ian Ritchie told a press conference at the club.

“After last year, we still feel that the same set-up will continue. We see no need for change in 2008.” Top players, including Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic, slammed the AELTCC for not scheduling play on the middle Sunday in 2007 — one of the few dry days at the wettest Wimbledon in 25 years.

This year, the singles champions will each receive 750,000 pounds ($1.5 million), up from 700,000 in 2007.

The total prize money on offer across all the tournaments will increase by 4.7 percent from 11,282,000 pounds to 11,812,000 pounds.

Prize money for the singles draws is up 5.3 percent to 3,925,000 pounds each, while the total pot for each of the men’s and ladies’ doubles events will exceed one million pounds for the first time.

The tournament seedings are to be announced on June 18, with the draw two days later.

—AFP