Oct 15, 2008, 13:03 GMT
Melbourne - The crash of the Australian dollar is being heard particularly loudly in the world of tennis, with the 'South Pacific peso' now worth less than 0.70 US.
From a high of near-parity last summer with the American currency, the Aussie has joined in the exchange rate freefall against the current refuge, the greenback.
And those kinds of economic realities could represent trouble on the bottom line for Australian Open organisers, who despite a prize packet boost for 2009 are likely to find themselves paying less money to the next winner on a circuit where US dollars and Euros rule. Champions can each expect to collect 1.6 million Australian, but at the current exchange rate, that comes to around 1.2 million US dollars.
Add in the massive Aussie windfall tax rate of up to 48.5 percent and the figure could shrink to a modest 618,000 US dollars.
For two weeks of hard work on court, some complaints are sure to be heard, if only quietly.
With a prize money jump for elite '1000' series events - Miami will pay men's and women's champions 590,000 dollars each for just over a week of work, while similar figures are on tap for Indian Wells and possibly Shanghai - an official familiar with the situation predicts it won't take big names long to figure out the declining risk-reward ratio for Melbourne Park.
By contrast, and before taxes, the Wimbledon champion earned 700,000 pounds sterling, about 1.2 million dollars, last summer while US Open winners walked with 1.4 million before the taxman took a bite.
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