SANTA BARBARA, Calif. (AP) — The last time Dejan Ljubicic played for Austria was nearly three years ago. Now a teammate's injury has given him a surprise comeback at the World Cup.
Austria coach Ralf Rangnick called up Ljubicic late Wednesday to replace key midfielder Christoph Baumgartner, who injured his right thigh while warming up for a pre-World Cup friendly against Tunisia last week and needed surgery.
Ljubicic is set to join Austria at the team camp in Santa Barbara on Thursday, ahead of the team's first game on Tuesday against Jordan. Austria also plays Argentina and Algeria in Group J.
He's more of a defensive midfield option than Baumgartner, who scored 17 goals in all competitions for Leipzig in Germany last season and has remained in camp to support the team.
Ljubicic also plays in Germany on the Schalke team which secured promotion from the second division last month.
Ljubicic has nine games for Austria but none at a major tournament. His last appearance was in a friendly against Moldova in September 2023 and he wasn't in the squad for any World Cup qualifiers.
AP World Cup: https://apnews.com/fifa-world-cup
FILE -Austria's Dejan Ljubicic, left, and Denmark's Joachim Andersen challenge for the ball during the UEFA Nations League soccer match between between Austria and Denmark at the Ernst Happel Stadion in Vienna, Austria, June 6, 2022. (AP Photo/Andreas Schaad, File)
LONDON (AP) — Amid players' calls for a bigger share of revenues, Wimbledon on Thursday announced 20% increases in total prize money and for the singles champions, who will earn 3.6 million pounds ($4.8 million) at the grass-court Grand Slam next month.
The total prize money including player per diems will be 64.2 million pounds ($85.8 million), described as “by far” the biggest annual increase in the tournament's history.
“I would hope the players would welcome it. It’s a significant amount of money,” All England Club chair Deborah Jevans said at a press conference.
“We’ve demonstrated that we’ve looked at every round, including qualifying. My hope is that the players do recognize what a significant increase that this is."
Players have long been calling for a greater share of revenues from the four Grand Slams and recently began taking steps toward collective action.
For this year’s Wimbledon, players advocated for total prize money of 71 million pounds ($95 million), Jevans said, citing her recent talks in Paris with Larry Scott, the former WTA CEO who has been advising the players.
Ahead of the French Open, No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka said players should at some point organize a boycott if their demands aren’t met. Men's No. 1 Jannik Sinner, Coco Gauff and others also spoke out.
Then, in pre-tournament news conferences at Roland Garros, top-10 players limited their sessions with journalists to 15 minutes in symbolic protest of their share of the tournament revenues.
Just over a year ago, 20 leading players signed a letter to the heads of the four Grand Slams seeking more prize money and a greater voice in decision making.
Wimbledon, the oldest Grand Slam tournament, begins June 29. Iga Swiatek is the women's defending champion. Sinner beat Carlos Alcaraz in last year's men's final and the Spaniard will miss the event because of a wrist injury.
First-round prize money this year will be 80,000 pounds ($107,000), which is a 21% increase over 2024, and the qualifying rounds will see a total increase of 25%.
The runner-up in the men's and women's singles will get 1.8 million pounds ($2.4 million) each. That's an 18% increase over last year.
Increasing prize money is a balancing act because 90% of any distributable financial surplus from Wimbledon goes to the Lawn Tennis Association, which is Britain’s governing body for tennis and padel.
The LTA works to increase participation in the sport, renovate courts, support elite player development, and run grass-court tournaments in the buildup to Wimbledon.
For calendar year 2025, the LTA reported a 4% decrease in the Wimbledon surplus (48.6 million pounds or $65 million) compared to 2024, though the LTA’s total revenue was up 2% — in part, it said, because of the introduction of a women’s tour event at Queen’s Club.
AP tennis: https://apnews.com/hub/tennis
FILE - Italy's Jannik Sinner returns to Carlos Alcaraz of Spain in the men's singles final at the Wimbledon Tennis Championships in London, Sunday, July 13, 2025. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung, File)
FILE - Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus serves to Amanda Anisimova of the U.S. during a women's singles semifinal match at the Wimbledon Tennis Championships in London, Thursday, July 10, 2025. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung, File)
