The Brexit effect: Serena Williams loses out on Wimbledon prize money worth $380,000

Serena Williams’s joy of equalling Steffi Graf’s ‘Open Era’ record of 22 Grand Slam titles might die down a little as the Wimbledon singles champion is set to lose out on a sum of nearly $380,000 worth of prize money due to the United Kingdom’s (UK) recent exit from the European Union, popularly dubbed as Brexit.

According to a report on Bloomberg, Serena is among the competitors who are set to lose out on a major sum of prize money in this year’s edition of Wimbledon due to the falling value of the pound following UK’s decision last month.

Serena defeated Angelique Kerber 7-5, 6-3 to clinch her seventh Wimbledon singles title, establishing her claim on the £2 million prize money, which in itself was hiked by 6.4 percent.

However, the aforementioned amount was worth $2.97 million pre-Brexit, which then fell to $2.59 million after the landmark decision that was the result of a 52:48 referendum.

Serena extended her dominance in the ongoing majors by winning the doubles title with sister Venus, although the prize money of £350,000 ($453,000) prize money will be worth $67,000 less than what it would have been pre-Brexit.

Kerber, Serena’s opponent in Saturday’s final, would have earned €2.34 million, poorer by 270,000 than the pre-Brexit figure.

Top seed Williams was forced to play some of her best tennis against a resolute Kerber in an engrossing Centre Court duel in which her formidable firepower proved decisive over her German opponent.

Kerber had stopped Williams in the Australian Open final earlier in 2016 to win her first grand slam title and Spain’s Garbine Muguruza also kept the 34-year-old waiting to equal Graf’s mark when she beat her in the French Open final in June.

Williams, who racked up grand slam number 21 against Muguruza at 2015’s Wimbledon, also stumbled at the 2015 US Open, losing to Roberta Vinci in the semi-finals when a calendar year Grand Slam and Graf’s record loomed.

But this time Williams would not be denied.

To her great credit fourth seed Kerber used her skilful shot placement and scrambling ability to stay in contention throughout a fascinating match of contrasting styles.

But with the Williams serve at its destructive best there was only so much punishment the 28-year-old Kerber could absorb on a breezy Centre Court.

The end came quickly when the German was broken for the second time in the match in the seventh game of the second set and Williams roared to the title with a love game, sealing victory with a simple volley before collapsing to the turf.

(With inputs from Reuters)