Why Andy Murray’s Wimbledon loss will cost him
Andy Murray's Wimbledon title defence came to a surprise halt today at the hands of Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrov.
The Scot crashed out at SW19 after an excellent display from 23-year-old Dimitrov, who ousted Murray in three sets.
Other than a chance to defend the title he won last year, Murray will now miss out on the opportunity to challenge for £1.76m in prize money, the highest amount ever given to a Wimbledon winner and 10 per cent more than he and Marion Bartoli earned for victory last year.
The £1.76m figure dwarfs the sum that Murray will now end up with after crashing out at the last eight of the competition.
Murray, who became the first British male tennis player for 77 years to win at Wimbledon singles title in 2013, will go home with £226,000 this year after his exit. This is just 13 per cent of what he could have won were he to have won the competition back to back.
A victory over Dimitrov, which would have seen him through to his sixth consecutive semi-final, would have seen him almost double his earnings from the competition to £440,000.
Even though leaving the tournament at this stage will have damaged Murray's ranking and will see him miss out on the prize pot, it is unlikely that this result will have a significant financial impact for the Scot long term.
Reports following his historic success at the competition last year suggested that the 27-year-old was in line to boost his earnings to £50m per year, believed to be £8m a year at the time, due to increased revenue from sponsorships tied into performance related increases and a wider appeal to secure better endorsement deals.
Murray can also take comfort in the fact that of the 20 Wimbledon men's singles champions in the Open era since 1968, the period from when professionals could compete in the big tournaments, half have gone on to win the competition again, with US tennis legend Jimmy Connors, Jon McEnroe, Stefan Edberg and Rafael Nadal all having won the trophy again despite failing in the defence of their title.