Tennis

Tennis Grand Slam Prize Money Comparison and Breakdown – Does Wimbledon have the biggest purse?

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Grand Slams are the four most important tennis events which offer the most ranking points, prize money, public, and media attention

Tennis is one of the richest sports in the world and it is the big Grand Slam event which offers its contestants huge prize money.

However, there have been studies and discussions regarding the imbalances in the prize-money structure between the top and bottom of the professional game.

Thiem (right) with his runners-up trophy alongside Australian Open champion Novak Djokovic. (Getty Images)

Grand Slam tournaments are considered as one of the major criteria which decides a player’s quality.

They offer the most ranking points, prize money, and media attention compared to any other tournaments in tennis.

The Grand Slams consists of the Australian Open, the French Open (also known as Roland Garros), Wimbledon and the US Open.

Now let’s take a comparison at the prize money offered by these four Majors in 2023.

Australian Open

The 2023 edition of the Australian Open had the highest-ever prize money at stake – 76.5 million Australian dollars. It is also worth noting that the total pot for the Australian summer of tennis, which includes Grand Slam warm-up events like the United Cup, exceeded Australian $100 million for the first time in history.

The Australian Open

When it comes to the main draw of the Australian Open, the participants exiting from round one received Australian $106,250 while second round participants got Australian $158,850. This figure indicates an increase of up to 3.2 percent from the previous edition. Meanwhile, both the men’s and women’s singles champions took home equal prize money – Australian $2.975 million. This is a hike of 3.4 percent from the 2022 edition of the Australian Open.

French Open

Please note all figures are in Euros

The French Open is the second Grand Slam of the year and takes stage in the clay courts of Paris.

Prize money for this year’s Roland Garros is a total of €49.6 million, an increase of more than 12 per cent from 2022. The men’s and women’s singles champions in Paris will each receive €2.3 million.

The first-round losers in the singles draws will earn €69,000, an increase of 11 per cent from the previous edition in 2022. The prize money for the women’s and men’s doubles competitions has gone up by 4 per cent.

The total French Open prize money was about 7% higher in 2022 (the first year of the post-pandemic era) than it was for the last pre-pandemic edition in 2019 — with an increase of 35% for players who lost in the first round of singles. This year the total allocated pot has increased further by more than 12 per cent.

Roland Garros or French Open is the next big Grand Slam event in the calendar and they too offer good prize-money to its contestants. (Getty Images)

The French Tennis Federation announced that it will hand out a total of 43.6 million euros in 2022 and this year it is close to 50 million.

The federation said the increases for first-round singles matches and qualifying “is designed to help the players who have suffered the most” financially because of the pandemic.

In comparison to 2019, the singles purse has gone up by nearly 15 per cent and the doubles prize pot has risen by about 10 per cent. Players in qualifying rounds will see an increase of about 70 per cent in available money over 2019, and 5 per cent over last year.

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Wimbledon

Wimbledon is the next journey in the race to win the Grand Slams. This tournament takes place on the grass courts of London where Roger Federer made it his home, almost.

Wimbledon considered the classiest of all Grand Slams offered a total of US $49.4 million last year. (Getty Images)

The prize money for 2021 was decreased by 7.85% to £35,016,000. And as is the case for the previous Grand Slams, the singles stars earn the most.

Each singles champion earned £1,700,000 in 2021 while the losing finalists each made £900,000. 

In the doubles, each winning team got £480,000 while the winning team in the mixed doubles received £100,000. 

The winner of the Wimbledon Men’s and Women’s Singles 2022 took home a whopping £1,700,000 each. The runner-ups received an impressive £900,000. Those who made it to round 4 and past the qualifiers earned £48,000.

For the year 2023, the All England Club announced a record-breaking total pot of 44,700,000 pounds for the 2023 Wimbledon Championships.

The Singles’ winners in both the Ladies’ and Gentlemen’s categories will receive 2,350,000 pounds while the runners-up from both of these categories will take home a total of 1,175,000 pounds.

The overall prize money on offer at the 2023 Championships increased by a whopping 11.2% from the previous edition in 2022 and there has been a 17.1% increase from the last pre-pandemic edition in 2019.

US Open

The final Grand Slam of the year takes place in New York and this might be the most glitzy affair of them all.

The US Open is played on hard courts and has seen many stars pick up titles here. It hasn’t been dominated by one player complete, like the other three slams, and certainly provides a spectacle for the fans.

There is one big factor in the US Open. This tournament provides the biggest purse in tennis and in 2021 it was a total of $57.5m.

The singles winners each received a massive $2,500,000 while the losing finalists also got $1,250,000 each. The doubles champions got $660,000 while the mixed doubles winners got $160,000.

For the 2023 edition, the winners of men and women’s singles will take home an impressive $3 million. The runner ups will receive $1.5 million.

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Sarbik Dutta

My heart races on the F1 track and tennis courts, translating the adrenaline of each moment into words. While F1's speed thrills and tennis's finesse captivate me, my passion doesn't stop there. As a devoted follower of cricket, football, and various Olympic sports, I find myself engulfed in the highs and lows of these games. Through my writing, I aim to share the stories behind the stats, the emotions fueling the victories, and the struggles that define the journey of athletes across diverse disciplines. Being a voice that echoes the fervor of these sports is a privilege I cherish every day.

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