Wimbledon: more cash, fewer stars, ticket demand high

Wimbledon's total prize money fund has risen to nearly A$100m for this year's tournament, double what it was a decade ago.

That still will not persuade Rafael Nadal to play in southwest London. The two-time winner has confirmed he will skip the grass-court grand slam to prepare for the Paris Olympics on Swedish claycourts.

Novak Djokovic is also likely to be absent as he recovers from knee surgery but ticket demand "has never been greater", said Deborah Jevans, the new chair of the All England Club which organises the event.

Total prize money will rise to a record Stg 50 million ($A96 million), an increase of 11.9 per cent on last year.

The singles champions will each earn $A5.2m, a 14.9m per cent jump, while first round losers will get $A115,000 each, a nine per cent rise.

The club also said they had been in contact with other grand slam hosts about the possibility of creating a domestic violence policy.

"Clearly that's something that the sport would want to do on a unified basis," Sally Bolton, the club chief executive, said on Thursday about forming a policy. "It is something that is pertinent and therefore has been discussed."

At the just-concluded French Open, Alexander Zverev competed — and ended up reaching the final — while being involved in a trial in Berlin related to accusations by a former girlfriend of physical abuse during a 2020 argument; the case ended via an out-of-court settlement hours before Zverev played in the semi-finals in Paris.

Centre Court will continue to begin play at 1:30pm local time despite concerns expressed by Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray that such scheduling inevitably leads to late starts for a day's last match.

Because the tournament site is in a residential area, there is an 11pm curfew for competition so some matches have to be held over for completion the following day.

Nadal, who turned 38 on June 3, and was on Wednesday named in Spain's Olympic team, said he wants to remain on clay, rather than switching over to grass, then needing to go back to clay for Paris.

To that end he will play in a clay-court tournament in Bastad, Sweden, he hasn't attended since winning it in 2005.

"We believe that the best for my body is not to change surface," Nadal said in a statement on Thursday.

"I will miss playing at the Championships this year at Wimbledon. I am saddened not to be able to live this year the great atmosphere of that amazing event that will always be in my heart," Nadal said, "and be with all the British fans that always gave me great support. I will miss you all."

Nadal will play doubles — with Carlos Alcaraz — and singles at the OIympics.