Who earned the most prize money on the ATP tour? Sure: Novak Djokovic. Crazy but: Alexander Zverev is also in the top 5! The top 4 in the world prize money rankings sound logical: Novak Djokovic (184,480,269 US dollars), Rafael Nadal (134,946,100 US dollars), Roger Federer (130,594,339 US dollars) and – with some distance – Andy Murray (64,687,542 US dollars) are listed at the top. And with it the “Big 4” of the tennis scene, who have dominated the tour over the past 20 years. But what about the rest? Where do the current top players stand in comparison to the all-time greats of previous years, such as Rod Laver, Björn Borg, Ivan Lendl, Boris Becker, Stefan Edberg, Andre Agassi, Pete Sampras and Co.? Disproportionately far ahead, one would argue.
The reason for this is the development of prize money in recent years. Which is of course a blessing for the current professionals. But it seems unfair for the “oldies”.
Let’s take a look at the rest of the top 10: Here Alexander Zverev is already listed in 5th place with 44,836,889 US dollars. Crazy: Zverev hasn’t won a Grand Slam title yet, but has moved ahead of Pete Sampras this year. He won 14 major titles but “only” earned $43,280,489.
The highest earners in the top 10 are: Daniil Medvevev (US$42,605,819), Stan Wawrinka (US$37,089,980), Carlos Alcaraz (US$35,181,805) and Stefanos Tsitsipas (US$31,483,911). -Dollar).
How much did Thiem and Co. earn?
Other interesting names from the current scene: Dominic Thiem is in 14th place (30,312,316 US dollars), Jannik Sinner in 17th place (27,634,144 US dollars), oldie Richard Gasquet in 27th place (21,155,054 US dollars ), Jan-Lennard Struff in 86th place ($10,775,927).
That’s how much the oldies around Boris Becker, Stefan Edberg and Rod Laver earned
The differences in prize money over time become clearer the further back you look.
The six-time major winner Boris Becker is still there in 20th place (25,080,956 US dollars), as is the nine-time Grand Slam champ Ivan Lendl in 26th place (21,262,417 US dollars) and the six-time major champ Stefan Edberg 31st place ($20,613,441).
If you look at the generation before, the gap is larger. John McEnroe is only ranked 69th ($12,552,132), Jimmy Connors – still the man with the most tour titles (109) – is only ranked 116th ($8,616,040). And pop legend Björn Borg is only at number 310 ($3,655,751).
And Rod Laver, who won the Grand Slam twice in the 1960s (but once as an amateur and therefore without any prize money), is only ranked 592nd (1,565,413 US dollars). For comparison: Dominic Stricker, Swiss young hope, is still ahead of him in 589th place…
Who will lead in terms of prize money in 2024?
Incidentally, the prize money list this year is headed by Jannik Sinner (US$10,590,709), ahead of Carlos Alcaraz (US$8,155,657) and Alexander Zverev (US$6,288,069).
Federer, Nadal, Djokovic earn most of their money from advertising
Also crazy: for the stars of the scene, the prize money is just peanuts.
Roger Federer has earned $130 million on the tennis court – and many times that amount off it.
Between June 1, 2019 and May 31, 2020 alone, the maestro collected around $100 million in advertising revenue and entry fees. The $6.3 million in prize money during this period seems almost ridiculous.
