As one recent study of the economics of forecasting put it, "Being the single winner always entails more glory than sharing the prize".
For starters, the Congress began to question the single winner component.
Whoever wins will then proceed to the next round and so on through the rounds of Sweet 16, Elite 8, Final 4 right down to the single winner.
He even toppled a youngster named Novak Djokovic, now the singles winner of four of the past five Grand Slam tournaments, the current world No. 1.
In 1973, the total purse rose to $227,200; the singles winners, John Newcombe and Court, each received $25,000, and all Round of 64 losers got $400.
At the United States Open this year, there is a subtle confirmation that doubles is sagging; the doubles prize money for the winners has not increased from the previous year, staying at $350,000, while the singles winners' prize money has jumped $50,000 to $900,000.
THE $15 MILLION OPEN: The 2000 United States Open will be the first in tennis to offer $15 million in prize money, including a record $800,000 for each of the singles winners.
The election was conducted by means of the alternative vote (also called instant runoff voting), which is the single-winner analogue of the single transferable vote used in other Irish elections.
The record for the highest single winner jackpot belongs to Al Castellano, who won $141 million on June 23 , 2001 in San Jose.
Despite the extra money for schools and hospitals, the biggest single winner from yesterday's package was the road lobby, a rather inconvenient fact in the light of the prime minister's "greening of Britain" pledge on Tuesday.
The biggest single winner, however, will be the government, which will pocket €1 billion ($1.3 billion) in ticket sales for the national treasury.
