Wimbledon won't investigate LTA finances

The All England Club have ruled out the possibility of seeking clarification over how the money they give the Lawn Tennis Association is spent.

Each year the LTA pockets over £25million from the proceeds of Wimbledon with further funding also provided by other sources, yet British tennis continues to languish in the doldrums.

The LTA's failings were criticised last month by an All-Party Tennis Group set up by Sports Minister Gerry Sutcliffe and they are under pressure to explain the lack of success.

But Tim Phillips, chairman at the All England Club, insists there is neither the resources nor license to begin scrutinising the LTA's distribution of the Wimbledon 'surplus'.

"We very much work on the basis that our small team concentrates on making Wimbledon globally competitive," said Phillips.

"We have a group of 12 volunteers on the committee who have the time and inclination to do what they can to help Wimbledon.

"We also have a small executive team who are high-quality people.

"Frankly we are stretched to do all we do here. There's a lot of work involved and it's not effortless.

"It's not helpful for us to be second guessing or exerting control over the LTA when we are not familiar with all the issues or difficulties.

"We've got our agenda here and we concentrate on that. We have the joint finance committee but the purpose of that is not for us to try to put pressure on the LTA.

"We don't have all the information and we need to concentrate on what we're doing here.

"The LTA have the mandate to run tennis. We don't. We have a mandate to run Wimbledon and that's what we do."

This year's Wimbledon champions will win £1million each, a recession-busting 17.6% increase on the 2009 purse.