Novak Djokovic grabbing a top spot in any way is no news to anyone. Though his extension of this streak to the Earning List has surely engaged more of the public than anything else. Last year in 2022, there was a shocking update of Iga Swiatek coming close to becoming the highest paid tennis player, among both men and women. In over 16 years, no woman had ever come even close. A streak that, unfortunately, still continues.
The continuation of Tennis being a man’s world
Just after the US Open, the top three players in the 2024 prize money list for tennis are all men. It was the champion Novak Djokovic who bagged the first position, followed by the runner-up Daniil Medvedev and semi-finalist Carlos Alcaraz, with others following behind with slight distance. The three mentioned players have earned around $3 million, $1.5 million and $775,000, respectively. This was slightly elevated in the later stage of the rounds for Djokovic.
Jannik Sinner, the fourth highest paid man, was earning around $284,000 by reaching the fourth round. Djokovic has now reached $10 million on the year. The sheer domination reflects the bias toward the male game in a clear scenario.
The top-rankers among the female tennis stars
Arya Sabalenka tops the female tennis players with a whopping $7.37 million after missing out in the US Open final to the winner Coco Gauff, who vaulted up to be the second-highest female earner. Sabalenka had a great year in the majors this season, grabbing the Australian Open and reaching the semifinals of all the top 4 slams.
Though, she won only 1 tournament, while her male counterpart grabbed 3 tournaments. Additionally, she’s only won one WTA 1000-level event, and Alcaraz and Medvedev have each won two Masters 1000 titles. While the female star comes close to the position, she will take a long time reaching her fellow male stars.
Men in general get paid a lot more than what their female counterparts reveal. For instance, the Cincinnati Open paid out roughly $6.6 million to male players in 2024 and just $2.8 million to female players, and prize money disparities at lower-level tournaments are even worse. Despite this, the 10 top players have 6 women in total.
The scenario of the money pool for the year ahead
Looking forward to the rest of the year, men have a large upper hand over women with regard to the money available. The women’s tours will be receiving a total of $2.8 million purse while their male fellowes will be gaining a rough estimate of $7.2 million through the Paris Masters and $8.8 million through the Shanghai Masters.
Sabalenka could reach $10 million, still, if she does well in the next 2 months remaining of the season. At the end of the season, the final will be played against each top eight player in the rankings. This consists of the concept “rich get richer” events.
The public attention on Djokovic’s upcoming tournaments
These types of money-based events don’t draw as much attention from people as the Grand Slams in general would. Though, Djokovic did bring home a great amount of cash from winning the statured final. In fact, $4.74 million became his richest single day earning in the year. This way he surpassed the previous record of Rafal Nadal which was above $3 million.
The world highest paid tennis star, Djokovic, revealed lower-ranked players to be struggling the most. For himself, she described an enormous earning being enough for multiple lifetimes. Even the bonus pool adds to this earning of the star.
In 2022, Alcaraz earned nearly $3 million from the bonus pool. This year, the ATP bonus pool has ballooned to $21.3 million, though the distribution formula has yet to be announced, while the women’s side pays out a much smaller $4.5 million.
