Men, women equal at French Open

Paris: The French Open will offer equal prize money to the men's and women's champions for the first time.

Each champion will receive $1.13 million, the French Tennis Federation said on Monday.

"We're following the evolution of tennis in general a little bit," said Stephane Simean, the federation official in charge of setting the prizes.

"On the women's side, there has been a very positive change, with the arrival of many new stars," Simean said.

"Once upon a time, there were only three or four dominant women - now, there are 10 to 15 who can vie for a Grand Slam."

Total prize money for the May 28-June 11 tournament will be $17.21 million, the federation said.

The decision leaves Wimbledon as the only one of the four Grand Slam tournaments which still pays the men's winner more than the women's champion.

The US and Australian Opens have offered equal prize money for years.

Wimbledon will announce prize money for this summer's tournament later this month.

Overall, excluding mixed doubles and other prize winners, men will still take home more money at the French Open: $8.09 million compared to $7.41 million for women.

"We look objectively at the criteria, and there is still not the same density (of talent) on the women's side that there is on the men's side," Simean said.

"For the moment, we are focusing on just the winners."

Larry Scott, CEO of the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour, applauded the move toward equal prize money for the women's winner.

However, he thinks there should be parity for the remaining players.