Melbourne, Dec 24 (IANS): The next year's Australian Open will see players competing for a record AUD 71 million ($ 49.1 million).

The men's and women's singles champions will pocket $4.1 million each after officials announced an increase of 13.6 per cent on last year's purse. Prize money has more than doubled (183.9 per cent increase) from AUD 25 million in 2011 (10 years).

Those who lose in the first round of qualifying will take home AUD 20,000, up 33 per cent, while players losing in the first round of the main draw will earn AUD 90,000 in prize money.

Australian Open Tournament Director Craig Tiley said the increase was another important step in continuing to invest in the playing group.

"We have long been committed to improving the pay and conditions for a deeper pool of international tennis players, in fact since AO 2007 prize money has more than tripled from AUD 20 million to the AUD 71 million for 2020 we are announcing today," Tiley said.

"This year, as we do every year, we worked with the tours to establish the weighting for prize money increases round-by-round, and we pushed to reward players competing early in the tournament in both singles and doubles.

"We strongly believe in growing prize money at all levels of the game and we will continue to work with the playing group to create viable career paths in the sport and enable more players to make more money."

The Australian Open will begin at the Melbourne Park from January 20.