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LONDON (AP) - The ATP says prize money across its second-level World Tour 500 tennis tournaments will go up by an average of 10 percent in each of the next five years.
The increase will take overall prize money from $17.6 million in 2013 to $30.8 million in 2018.
Tour 500 events are the second tier of tournaments on the men's tour, behind the Masters 1000 series.
Two grass-court Wimbledon warm-up events will be upgraded to Tour 500 status in 2015 _ the Queen's Club tournament in the London and the Gerry Weber Open in Halle, Germany. There will be an extended three-week break, rather than two, between the French Open and Wimbledon starting in 2015.
Queen's and Halle will join Rotterdam, Dubai, Rio de Janeiro, Acapulco, Barcelona, Hamburg, Washington, Tokyo, Beijing, Valencia and Basel as World Tour 500 events.
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