Jannik Sinner ranks first in 2026 tennis tournament earnings with $11.62 million. The world No. 1 has won all five Masters 1000 tournaments this year, earning more than $1 million for each championship. The 24-year-old Italian then won his first major tournament of the year at Wimbledon, which earned nearly $4.8 million and moved him into fifth place all-time on the career prize money list with total prize money of $69.6 million.
Alexander Zverev is just behind Sinner when it comes to year-to-date on-court earnings with $9.03 million. The German took home $3.27 million for winning Roland Garros – 10% more than last year’s winner – and then reached the final at Wimbledon. Zverev ranks sixth all-time with total prize money of $68.4 million, despite winning just one major.
Linda Noskova earned the most tennis prize money of any woman in the 2026 season, $6.19 million. The majority of this came from the victory at Wimbledon, which has the second highest payout of the four majors after the US Open. The 21-year-old from the Czech Republic has earned $10.7 million in prize money over the course of her career and now has a major title.
The next opportunity for players to make big money will be the US Open, which had total prize money of around $90 million in 2025. This year’s prize pool will be announced later this summer after many top players recently expressed their belief that the Grand Slams should pay players a larger share of the revenue.
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How does prize money work in tennis?
When tennis players participate in tournaments, they are compensated based on the round in which they lose, with payouts increasing somewhat exponentially as the player continues to win. A first-round loser at the 2025 Miami Open received $23,760, while the tournament runner-up won $598,000 and the champion won $1.12 million.
Singles draws generally pay out more money than doubles draws, but singles players also increase their earnings by participating in doubles games in events that include both formats.
The money involved in different tournaments varies greatly. There are level 250, 500 and 1000 events throughout the year; The number indicates how many ranking points the winners receive. Tournaments where more points are at stake generally pay out more money.
Which tennis tournament has the highest prize money?
The four majors – Australian Open, French Open, Wimbledon and US Open – award 2,000 ranking points. They also have larger wallets.
For example, the 2025 US Open provided $5 million to each individual winner, while the 2025 Winston-Salem Open, an ATP 250 event, distributed $109,640 to its champion the previous week. Many pros also compete on the Challenger Tour, where players typically take home low five-figure sums for winning an event.
Although the ATP Finals and WTA Finals at the end of the calendar attract significantly less public attention than the Majors, they are extremely lucrative for the exclusive circle of eight participants. In fact, the $5.07 million Sinner earned for winning the 2025 ATP Finals is almost the amount he earned for winning the 2025 Australian Open ($2.15 million) and Wimbledon 2025 ($4.12 million) combined.
Do men earn more than women in tennis?
Last year, 23 women and 30 men earned at least $2 million. The four majors have paid all genders equally since 2007, but many major events where men and women play simultaneously still pay men far more. For example, the Cincinnati Open in 2025 paid out about $9.2 million to male players and just $5.2 million to female players, while prize money disparities are even greater at lower level tournaments.
In 2022, Iga Świątek was so dominant on the court that she almost became the first woman to become the highest-paid tennis player in a single season since 2003, when Kim Clijsters ($4.47 million) overtook Roger Federer ($4 million). In 2025, the gender pay gap at the top of sport will finally narrow a bit after growing in recent years. The top ten male players earned a combined $87.8 million in 2025 before bonus pool payouts, just 23% more than the $71.3 million earned by the top ten female players.
In the global professional sports landscape, tennis still offers the greatest earning potential for women, with seven of the ten highest-paid female athletes playing tennis in 2025. Many tournaments have committed to offering equal pay in the future, but there is still a lot of work to be done to close the gap overall.
Male tennis stars also benefit significantly from ATP bonus pools, which share additional winnings with the game’s top players, with payouts dependent on year-end placing and participation in a certain number of 1000-level tournaments. The pool rose to about $21 million in 2023 and remained roughly there in 2024 and 2025.
Which tennis player has the most prize money?
For both genders, tennis is financially dominated by the elite. Last year Alcaraz earned more than five times the 10th highest paid man Rudd and Sabalenka earned more than five times the 10th highest paid woman Elise Mertens.
The ATP Finals and WTA Finals each had prize money of over $15 million last year. Only the top eight players in the rankings take part in these tournaments, which contributes to the top-heavy distribution of prize money in tennis. These are essentially season-ending “rich get richer” events.
Novak Djokovic has won a record 24 Grand Slams and seven ATP Tour Finals, with inflation giving him an added boost over players of previous generations. He holds three seasons with the highest prize money of all time and has a $58 million lead over Rafael Nadal for the most winnings in his career. Djokovic’s lifetime prize money totals $193 million.
https://www.sportico.com/feature/tennis-prize-money-breakdowns-atp-wta-1234769498/
