Unless Wimbledon coughs up more cash for prize money, the world's leading male tennis players could boycott the grasscourt grand slam in 2004.

The spectre emerged after a meeting of between around 120 players at the All England Club on the eve of this year's championships.

The players said they would consider taking part in alternative tournaments set up by men's tennis organisers, the ATP, unless disagreements between the players and the 'slams' were smoothed over.

"If the players ended up being left in a position - which we hope very much will not be the case - where the economic value of the position of the grand slams is simply not going to be fairly shared, then the players' alternative would be to play elsewhere," ATP chief Mark Miles said following Saturday night's meeting.

For now, women's tennis is not with the ATP in its dispute with the slams. The WTA has more pressing issues and its biggest concern remains equal prize money at Wimbledon and the French Open.

The men argue they should receive a larger share of the profits from the highly lucrative grand slams. The slams say that they already plough millions of dollars of profits back into grass roots tennis in their host countries.

STICKING POINT

It is becoming a major sticking point. The four slams - Wimbledon plus the Australian, French and US Opens - believe players are already paid extremely well and have already thrown out a request for more cash at the French Open earlier this month.

It is an issue which must be resolved if Wimbledon is to avoid a first boycott since 1973 when 81 men withdrew following the suspension of Yugoslav player Nikki Pilic for failing to play a Davis Cup match.

Miles faced his membership at the meeting for the first time since that request for more money was rejected by the Grand Slam Committee at the French Open.

He attempted on Sunday to take heat out of the situation, saying the word 'boycott' had not been mentioned at the meeting. But that appears merely a matter of semantics. The inference is clear if the players agree that the alternative would be to play elsewhere.

One option discussed was to stage a charity event the same fortnight of Wimbledon. There were suggestions the tournament would include 128 players -- the same size as a grand slam.

Miles spoke of proceeding on "two parallel tracks" - one being the continued negotiations.

"We're committed to that, and at the same time, we're going to proceed on a second track, and we're going to move forward to organise other alternatives, so we're prepared for any contingency," he said.

REASONABLE WAYS

"That doesn't mean there is a specific plan to do something else. The players' priority is to stay at the table and work out reasonable ways to address all the issues.

"(But) if we ever got to the point where the players became convinced that the Grand Slams are simply not willing to deal, from our perspective, reasonably with the players' concerns, we would be prepared to make other plans."

All four grand slams could be hit by a boycott but the French Open and Wimbledon seem the most likely to suffer.

Earlier this week the US Open announced a prize money hike at what is already the world's most lucrative sporting event.

Prize money is up by $1 million - a 6.2 percent increase - and the total purse of $17.07 million remains the highest of any tennis event.

For the first time in grand slam history, both the men's and women's singles champions will receive a record $1 million.

At this year's Wimbledon, which starts on Monday with total prize money of 9.37 million pounds ($15.69 million), the men's singles champion will receive 575,000 pounds ($960,500) and the women's champion 535,000 pounds ($893,700).

The increase in the U.S, was immediately welcomed by Miles. "The USTA's increase in this year's US Open prize money by $1 million is nearly twice the amount of the Open's average increases over the past few years," he said.

"Many players view this as a constructive preliminary step and it confirms the importance of our ongoing dialogue with the USTA regarding financial issues and other initiatives to grow the game."

Miles said Tim Phillips, chairman of the All England Club, appeared at Saturday's meeting and expressed interest in continuing discussions with the players.

More meetings between the ATP and Grand Slam officials are scheduled through the Wimbledon fortnight.