Women Left Wanting in Wimbledon Prize-Money Debate

Wimbledon could be on a collision course with women’s tennis after refusing again to give equal prize money to men and women.

What might anger the women even more are the All England Club’s reasons for refusing the Women’s Tennis Assn.’s demands.

Announcing a 5.4% increase in prize money to $12.16 million, club chairman John Curry explained Thursday why the men’s winner will receive $728,000 and the winning woman only $655,200.

“We do surveys of all the people who come on a regular basis and, in three surveys over the past 10 years, 70% of the people say that first and foremost the thing they want to watch is men’s singles,” Curry said.

“[The women] have every right to request, but to demand it I think is hurtful and damaging to Wimbledon. It implies that we treat them unfairly, and that’s not true from the evidence.”

The WTA said the women received only 83% of the figure Wimbledon offers to the men and that was far below any of the other Grand Slam tournaments.

At the U.S. Open, women receive equal prize money with the men. At the Australian Open, they get 94%, and at the French Open, it’s 90%.

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Second-seeded Iva Majoli, the 1997 French Open champion, lost to 17-year-old Croatian compatriot Jelena Kostanic, 6-2, 7-5, in the Bol Ladies Open at Bol, Croatia. . . . Top-seeded Jana Novotna of the Czech Republic defeated Anne Kremer of Luxembourg, 6-4, 6-2, to reach the quarterfinals of the Betty Barclay Cup at Hamburg, Germany. . . . Second-seeded Jason Stoltenberg overcame chilly, soggy clay-court conditions to defeat Mark Woodforde, 6-2, 6-3, and advance to the quarterfinals of the AT&T; Challenge at Duluth, Ga. . . . Tommy Haas and Wayne Ferreira of South Africa, the last two seeded players left in the tournament, failed to survive the second round at the BMW Open at Munich, Germany, Haas losing to Franco Squillari of Argentina, 6-2, 6-7 (7-1), 6-1, and Ferreira falling to Michael Kohlmann of Germany, 6-7 (7-4), 6-4, 7-5. . . . German Puentes of Spain defeated eighth-seeded Andrew Ilie of Australia, 1-6, 6-1, 6-1, in the second round of the Czech Open at Prague.

Miscellany

Basketball standout Alonzo Lane of Jackson, Miss., was apparently ready to agree to play for Mississippi but instead signed with Arkansas after he received threatening phone calls, his coach said. Authorities have not been able to determine if the calls were a prank. . . . Forward Jumaine Jones of Georgia said he is giving up his final two years of college eligibility to make himself available for the NBA draft. . . . Center Michael Bradley, who set a Kentucky record for field-goal percentage, and guard Ryan Hogan have left the team and plan to transfer. . . . Northern Iowa basketball player Sean Stackhouse, arrested last month in Waterloo, Iowa, on marijuana charges, has pleaded not guilty to felony drug charges.

The NCAA added a 22nd bowl game by certifying the Mobile Alabama Bowl for 1999, and also paved the way for three more postseason games the next year--the Houston Bowl, the Freedom Bowl in San Francisco and the Silicon Valley Bowl in San Jose. . . . Jerry Jones, owner of the Dallas Cowboys, said the team does not plan to re-sign left guard Nate Newton, who has spent the last 13 seasons with the Cowboys. . . . Three businesses in Florida and Pennsylvania were barred from selling forged Mark McGwire memorabilia in the state and ordered to pay $37,500 in penalties and investigative costs to Missouri. . . . Leon Hess, 85-year-old owner of the New York Jets, is back in the hospital. Lenox Hill Hospital in New York refused to give out any information about Hess’ condition. . . . Carlos Hernandez of Bellflower stopped Javier Lucas of Mexico after five rounds of a scheduled 10-round junior-lightweight bout Wednesday night in Montebello.