How much money do professional tennis players earn per year/tournament?
What is the average amount of tournament money earned by professional tennis players during a year-long season on the pro circuit.
Professional tennis players are paid according to their performance in a tournament. Before a tennis tournament starts, the organization establishes the prize money breakdown (how much the champion, runner-up, semi-finalists, etc., will make). Players are compensated according to what round they lose.
Professional tennis players generally get paid through 6 different income sources: tournament prize money, tournament appearance fees, endorsement deals and sponsorships, exhibition fees, bonuses, and club tennis deals. Players’ ranking, nationality, and market popularity will determine how much they get paid from each source.
So if you’re not Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, or Novak Djokovic about how much money we are talking about.
In 2021, the average earnings for a male tennis player ranked anywhere from position one to one thousand on the ATP list were $185,106.59.
The average is deceptive due to disproportionate values at each end of the pay scale, with world number one Djokovic earning $9,100,547 and world number 1000 Michal Mikula earning $4,273.
Therefore the median is a correct illustration at $22,362.
The comparison isn’t an exact match for the WTA, as only 550 female players earned prize money in 2021. The average earnings for a WTA player were $254,394.55, and the median was $75,888.
In total, 37 players made more than $1 million on the men’s side compared to 31 on the women’s side.
Tournament money
The prize money offered at Grand Slams and larger ATP tournaments is significantly higher than the Challenger or Future level tournaments.
In 2022, US Open offered $2,500,000 for the winner, which is 173 times the amount winner of a Challenger 100 tournament typically makes ($14,400). Even a first-round loser in a Grand Slam makes more than $100,000, which can be more than many players earn in a season. However, to qualify for Grand Slams, a player usually needs to be ranked amongst the 104 best players in the world, which is not an effortless accomplishment.