Hotel & Tours Group

Women competing at this year's Medibank International tournament in Sydney will be playing for a larger share of prize money than their male counterparts.

In what is a unique situation for the professional circuit, the women will be fighting it out for a share of US600,000, while the men's prize money totals US484,750.

"The reason for the difference is to do with category of event on the respective tours," said tournament director Craig Watson.

"From this year the category of event will also have new names with the tours. The women's event is a Premier 600, which refers to the prize money figure, and the men's is an ATP 250 Series, which refers to the ranking points the new champion will receive.

"It's nice to be in that unique situation where you stand out from the rest. Both the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour and the ATP have been tremendous in their support and that has helped us assemble the best field in the tournament's history."

The Australian Open warm-up tournament begins on January 11 and will include the likes of Serena Williams, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, Elena Dementieva, Dinara Safina, Vera Zvonareva, Gilles Simon as well as local players Lleyton Hewitt, Samantha Stosur and Casey Dellacqua.