How much cash does an average professional tennis player make per year?

Whenever there’s talk of money and tennis, it’s usually about Roger Federer’s $106.3 million salary in 2020 alone, which placed him atop the list of the world’s highest-paid athletes.

There are thousands of tennis players around the world, including Federer. What is the reality for most professional tennis players? Would they all moor their yachts in Monte Carlo and travel the world in style, or would they all have vastly different lives?

The Average Tennis Players Salary

The average income for a male tennis player among the top thousand in 2021 was $185,106.59.

Averaging $9,100,547 for world number one Djokovic and $4,273 for world number 1000 Michal Mikula is misleading because extreme values are at either end of the pay scale.

Hence, $22,362 represents the median more accurately.

As there were only 550 female players earning prize money in 2021, the comparison is not exact. WTA players earned an average of $254,394.55 and a median of $75,888 in 2014.

The average prize money can also be broken down by ranking blocks, such as 1-10, 11-20, 21-30, etc. In the table below and bar chart below, you can see that information.

Average ATP Tennis Player Earnings in 2021

Ranking Average Earnings in 2021 % Difference
Top 10 $5,982,539 263%
11 to 20 $1,646,734 30%
21 to 30 $1,271,304 21%
31-40 $1,048,603 17%
41-50 $893,602 9%
51-60 $816,885 12%
61-70 $727,478 9%
71-80 $664,599 12%
81-90 $592,524 9%
91-100 $545,303 70%
101-200 $321,503 131%
201-300 $139,478 128%
301-400 $61,150 103%
401-500 $30,197 65%
501-600 $18,355 45%
601-700 $12,632 39%
701-800 $9,082 36%
801-900 $6,674 34%
901-1000 $4,994 124%
1001-1500 $2,230 218%
1501-2000 $701  

Average WTA Tennis Player Earnings in 2021

Ranking Average Earnings 2021 % Difference
Top 10 $2,811,484 74%
11 to 20 $1,614,396 33%
21 to 30 $1,209,845 36%
31-40 $888,169 21%
41-50 $731,739 19%
51-60 $614,339 9%
61-70 $564,318 8%
71-80 $521,465 8%
81-90 $483,610 8%
91-100 $447,755 77%
101-200 $252,676 160%
201-300 $97,257 160%
301-400 $37,352 116%
401-500 $17,304 47%
501-550 $11,738
How Much Do Tennis Players Make

How Many Tennis Players Made Over $1 Million in 2021?

On the women’s side, 31 players made more than $1 million, while 37 made more than $1 million on the men’s.

Earnings ATP Players WTA Players
$1 million + 37 31
$800k-$999k 20 8
$600k-$799k 26 18
$400k-$599k 42 49
$200k-$399k 42 49
$200k+ 194 173

How Much Do Tennis Players Make Per Tournament?

In comparison to Challenger and Future level tournaments, grand slams and larger ATP tournaments offer significantly more prize money.

Medvedev’s $2,500,000 prize was 173 times greater than what a Challenger 100 tournament winner typically makes ($14,400).

Generally, players earn more in a season than they do in a Grand Slam, even if they lose in the first round.

You may also check Australian Open Tennis and US Open Tennis

Players usually have to be ranked among the top 104 players in the world to qualify for Grand Slams, however.

ATP 500, ATP 250, Challenger and Futures prize money will be distributed at all four Grand Slams in 2021.

Tournament Winner Runner-up Semifinal Quarterfinal Round 4 Round 3 Round 2 Round 1 Q3 Q2 Q1
Australian Open $2,127,868 $1,160,655 $657,705 $406,229 $247,606 $166,361 $116,066 $77,377 $40,623 $27,082 $19,344
French Open $1,700,261 $910,854 $455,427 $309,690 $206,460 $137,235 $102,016 $72,868 $31,090 $19,432 $12,145
Wimbledon $2,378,421 $1,259,164 $650,568 $419,721 $253,232 $160,893 $104,930 $67,155 $35,676 $21,686 $11,892
US Open $2,500,000 $1,250,000 $675,000 $425,000 $265,000 $180,000 $115,000 $75,000 $42,000 $32,000 $20,000
Masters 1000 $1,209,730 $640,000 $335,000 $175,000 $92,000 $51,895 $29,045 $18,155 $9,110 $4,785
ATP 500 $350,755 $178,500 $91,500 $48,000 $24,400 $13,300 $7,520 $3,685 $1,970
ATP 250 $92,515 $54,355 $32,050 $18,310 $10,595 $6,195 $3,025 $1,575
Challenger 125 $21,600 $12,720 $7,530 $4,380 $2,580 $1,560 $780 $390
Challenger 100 $14,400 $8,480 $5,020 $2,920   $1,720 $1,040   $520 $260
Challenger 90 10645 6248 3760 2140   1273 764 382 191
Challenger 80 $7,200 $4,240 $2,510 $1,460 $860 $520 $260 $130
Challenger 50 $5,150 $3,050 $1,800 $1,050   $620 $375   $190 $115
Futures 25k $3,600 $2,120 $1,255 730 $430 $260  
Futures 15k $2,160 $1,272 $753 $438 $258 $156  

Earnings per tournament on average

As a result of playing just 14 tournaments in 2021, Novak Djokovic earned $9,069,225, or $647,802 per event.

A relatively large drop-off occurred after the first eight players averaged over $100k per tournament.

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The use of wildcards has also helped some players significantly increase their earnings.

The average pay per tournament for Leo Borg was 310th and he ranked 595th overall, outside of the top 1000.

Player Tournaments Played Average Earnings Per Tournament
Novak Djokovic 14 $647,802
Daniil Medvedev 23 $324,621
Alexander Zverev 23 $276,573
Matteo Berrettini 21 $152,435
Stefanos Tsitsipas 26 $134,754
Rafael Nadal 11 $134,439
Roger Federer 5 $129,531
Andrey Rublev 28 $111,838
Cameron Norrie 31 $81,251
Felix Auger-Aliassime 28 $73,421
Diego Schwartzman 25 $68,736
Hubert Hurkacz 32 $67,914
Casper Ruud 35 $63,731
Carlos Alcaraz 27 $59,919
Denis Shapovalov 28 $57,144
Grigor Dimitrov 25 $54,774
Kei Nishikori 19 $54,726
Nikoloz Basilashvili 32 $51,648
Jannik Sinner 42 $51,417
Pablo Carreno Busta 25 $51,370
Roberto Bautista Agut 27 $50,061
Dominic Thiem 15 $46,576
Karen Khachanov 29 $43,414
Reilly Opelka 28 $42,676
Lloyd Harris 31 $42,255
Gael Monfils 24 $42,230
John Isner 18 $41,732
Aslan Karatsev 40 $40,366
Taylor Fritz 35 $39,738
Alex de Minaur 29 $39,433
Marton Fucsovics 30 $38,757
Fabio Fognini 30 $38,265
Frances Tiafoe 33 $37,001
Marin Cilic 26 $34,685
Yen-Hsun Lu 7 $33,755
Daniel Evans 33 $32,155
Cristian Garin 30 $30,999
Nick Kyrgios 13 $30,995
Ilya Ivashka 28 $30,538
Andy Murray 17 $30,250
Jan-Lennard Struff 31 $30,104
Filip Krajinovic 28 $30,080
Lorenzo Sonego 36 $29,929
Dusan Lajovic 34 $29,432
Sam Querrey 19 $28,296
Sebastian Korda 39 $28,196
Milos Raonic 14 $26,878
Kevin Anderson 21 $26,569
Alexander Bublik 39 $26,453
Mackenzie McDonald 36 $25,815
Alexei Popyrin 32 $25,403
Jenson Brooksby 24 $24,969
Tommy Paul 35 $23,921
Alejandro Davidovich Fokina 36 $23,757
Jeremy Chardy 24 $23,733
Botic van de Zandschulp 36 $23,540
Guido Pella 27 $23,451
Marcos Giron 33 $23,349
Federico Delbonis 33 $22,999
Philipp Kohlschreiber 19 $22,410
Laslo Djere 35 $21,787
James Duckworth 37 $21,731
Brandon Nakashima 27 $21,478
David Goffin 25 $21,329
Dominik Koepfer 40 $21,239
Aljaz Bedene 23 $21,186
Mikael Ymer 32 $20,925
Adrian Mannarino 37 $20,781
Jordan Thompson 33 $20,759
Ugo Humbert 36 $20,076
Albert Ramos-Vinolas 40 $19,963
Yoshihito Nishioka 30 $19,927
Corentin Moutet 27 $19,888
Feliciano Lopez 30 $19,562
Ricardas Berankis 30 $19,402
Vasek Pospisil 24 $19,380
Benoit Paire 43 $19,185
Miomir Kecmanovic 36 $18,826
John Millman 38 $18,430
Richard Gasquet 29 $17,915
Pablo Andujar 37 $17,771
Lorenzo Musetti 47 $17,658
Pedro Martinez 43 $17,228
Soonwoo Kwon 35 $16,678
Peter Gojowczyk 31 $16,239
Egor Gerasimov 37 $16,128
Steve Johnson 31 $16,048
Pablo Cuevas 28 $15,852
Marco Cecchinato 36 $15,810
Andreas Seppi 37 $15,728
Emil Ruusuvuori 43 $15,273
Gianluca Mager 42 $14,998
Henri Laaksonen 36 $14,210
  34 $13,961
Thiago Monteiro 36 $13,820
Jack Sock 19 $13,812
Pierre-Hugues Herbert 33 $13,619
Facundo Bagnis 39 $13,324
Salvatore Caruso 36 $13,278
Roberto Carballes Baena 44 $13,143
Radu Albot 38 $12,928
Jaume Munar 38 $12,913
Mikhail Kukushkin 29 $12,732
Denis Kudla 38 $12,108
Kamil Majchrzak 31 $11,953
Hugo Gaston 41 $11,825
Lucas Pouille 31 $11,699
Jiri Vesely 43 $11,507
Federico Coria 47 $11,432
Yannick Hanfmann 37 $11,392
Borna Coric 16 $11,104
Stefano Travaglia 46 $10,987
Jo-Wilfried Tsonga 18 $10,822
Norbert Gombos 40 $10,738
Oscar Otte 47 $10,491
Arthur Rinderknech 54 $10,283
Alex Bolt 28 $10,096
Stan Wawrinka 14 $10,035
Juan Ignacio Londero 30 $9,982
Thanasi Kokkinakis 22 $9,976
Sam Riffice 8 $9,969
Gilles Simon 35 $9,906
Dennis Novak 35 $9,805
Roman Safiullin 26 $9,804
Maxime Cressy 38 $9,774
Yuki Bhambri 2 $9,748
Christopher O’Connell 38 $9,334
Carlos Taberner 40 $9,176
Tallon Griekspoor 39 $8,903
Bernabe Zapata Miralles 46 $8,902
Taro Daniel 40 $8,815
Fernando Verdasco 30 $8,336
Yasutaka Uchiyama 36 $8,259
Zachary Svajda 17 $8,186
Daniel Elahi Galan 43 $8,180
Alex Molcan 44 $8,141
Holger Rune 45 $8,037
Benjamin Bonzi 46 $8,021
Marco Trungelliti 31 $7,846
Yuichi Sugita 29 $7,840
Li Tu 11 $7,688
Michael Mmoh 23 $7,657
Gregoire Barrere 31 $7,650
Samir Banerjee 3 $7,327
Viktor Troicki 23 $7,088
Joao Sousa 41 $7,038
Sebastian Baez 40 $7,003
Ernesto Escobedo 36 $6,942
Mario Vilella Martinez 33 $6,900
Maximilian Marterer 33 $6,895
Mubarak Shannan Zayid 2 $6,858
Ivo Karlovic 19 $6,736
Liam Broady 42 $6,562
Max Purcell 29 $6,490
Tomas Machac 33 $6,451
Pedro Sousa 32 $6,395
Francisco Cerundolo 42 $6,378
Antoine Hoang 40 $6,361
Cedrik-Marcel Stebe 25 $6,152
Matthew Ebden 26 $6,142
Marc Polmans 43 $6,133
Bjorn Fratangelo 29 $6,104
Mathias Bourgue 29 $6,056
Damir Dzumhur 37 $6,039
Hugo Dellien 38 $5,754
Andrej Martin 48 $5,719
Bernard Tomic 26 $5,718
Illya Marchenko 37 $5,676
Quentin Halys 40 $5,658
Elias Ymer 37 $5,542
Christopher Eubanks 35 $5,338
Ernests Gulbis 28 $5,258
Evgeny Donskoy 41 $5,238
Enzo Couacaud 42 $5,181
Robin Haase 32 $5,147
Sumit Nagal 34 $5,134
Juan Manuel Cerundolo 47 $4,958
Alessandro Giannessi 35 $4,894
Zhizhen Zhang 26 $4,835
Ben Shelton 8 $4,826
J.J. Wolf 20 $4,755
Jack Draper 27 $4,728
Jozef Kovalik 35 $4,687
Alexandre Muller 41 $4,661
Christian Harrison 16 $4,593
Eliot Spizzirri 8 $4,537
Lukas Lacko 29 $4,524
Sergiy Stakhovsky 35 $4,508
Arthur Cazaux 27 $4,448
Andrey Kuznetsov 21 $4,445
Nikola Milojevic 36 $4,397
Mikael Torpegaard 31 $4,367
Frederico Ferreira Silva 41 $4,329
Dominic Stricker 18 $4,319
Thomas Fabbiano 34 $4,286
Aleksandar Vukic 45 $4,242
Jurij Rodionov 42 $4,175
Nicolas Mahut 8 $4,110
Sebastian Ofner 40 $4,013
Cem Ilkel 44 $4,004
Alejandro Tabilo 45 $3,948
Daniel Masur 38 $3,934
Denis Istomin 39 $3,900
Marius Copil 27 $3,841
Ruben Bemelmans 33 $3,838
Daniel Altmaier 52 $3,708
Emilio Nava 27 $3,693
Blaz Rola 43 $3,684
Kimmer Coppejans 42 $3,674
Ramkumar Ramanathan 45 $3,667
Jason Jung 38 $3,651
John-Patrick Smith 16 $3,627
Emilio Gomez 48 $3,546
Marc-Andrea Huesler 43 $3,542
Federico Gaio 50 $3,541
Tomas Barrios Vera 41 $3,538
Prajnesh Gunneswaran 34 $3,538
Mitchell Krueger 39 $3,514
Constant Lestienne 37 $3,387
Blaz Kavcic 20 $3,324
Tatsuma Ito 27 $3,314
Juan Pablo Varillas 42 $3,309
Blake Mott 6 $3,280
Thiago Seyboth Wild 40 $3,275
Jay Clarke 39 $3,267
Attila Balazs 22 $3,238
Borna Gojo 36 $3,142
Altug Celikbilek 42 $3,129
Roberto Marcora 47 $3,123
Martin Klizan 20 $3,113
Tobias Kamke 34 $3,043
Thai-Son Kwiatkowski 34 $3,005
Steven Diez 40 $2,974
Filip Horansky 42 $2,968
Brayden Schnur 42 $2,959
Zdenek Kolar 54 $2,921
Go Soeda 33 $2,901
Yannick Maden 34 $2,856
Aleksandar Kovacevic 20 $2,833
Mats Moraing 43 $2,826
Guido Andreozzi 28 $2,815
Danilo Petrovic 36 $2,794
Maxime Janvier 53 $2,788
Felipe Meligeni Rodrigues Alves 43 $2,748
Lukas Rosol 34 $2,738
Kacper Zuk 40 $2,726
Arthur Fery 13 $2,699
Stefan Kozlov 29 $2,693
Govind Nanda 15 $2,682
Joao Menezes 47 $2,666
Zane Khan 22 $2,641
Gastao Elias 29 $2,638
Paolo Lorenzi 38 $2,605
Tomas Martin Etcheverry 50 $2,531
Ulises Blanch 33 $2,511
Renzo Olivo 50 $2,505
Dimitar Kuzmanov 38 $2,474
Dustin Brown 20 $2,462
Tommy Robredo 20 $2,443
Joao Domingues 34 $2,407
Gian Marco Moroni 40 $2,386
Jiri Lehecka 44 $2,380
Peter Polansky 40 $2,202
Dmitry Popko 50 $2,192
Zizou Bergs 43 $2,180
Nicolas Kicker 21 $2,148
Lorenzo Giustino 58 $2,079
Andrea Collarini 47 $2,038
Leonardo Mayer 20 $2,024
Andrea Pellegrino 45 $2,023
Alastair Gray 12 $1,991
Jason Kubler 28 $1,973
Roberto Cid Subervi 40 $1,924
Malek Jaziri 35 $1,920
Arthur Fils 19 $1,906
Anton Matusevich 22 $1,905
Flavio Cobolli 26 $1,879
Jack Pinnington Jones 13 $1,874
Facundo Mena 43 $1,860
Mohamed Safwat 47 $1,847
Luca Van Assche 18 $1,837
Nicola Kuhn 37 $1,835
Lukas Klein 36 $1,796
Tristan Schoolkate 21 $1,724
Tung-Lin Wu 36 $1,677
Nicolas Jarry 35 $1,675
Mischa Zverev 25 $1,666
Carlos Gimeno Valero 18 $1,652
Hugo Grenier 51 $1,590
Rinky Hijikata 27 $1,574
Gerald Melzer 13 $1,564
Dane Sweeny 31 $1,561
Vit Kopriva 50 $1,521
Hamad Medjedovic 12 $1,465
Juan Pablo Ficovich 36 $1,454
Matthias Bachinger 30 $1,441
Shintaro Mochizuki 37 $1,430
Rudolf Molleker 32 $1,371
Matteo Viola 46 $1,364
Andrew Harris 21 $1,336
Filippo Baldi 29 $1,295
James Ward 20 $1,295
Zhe Li 19 $1,287
Franco Agamenone 34 $1,286
Nuno Borges 28 $1,269
Dudi Sela 15 $1,252
Elliot Benchetrit 32 $1,252
Andrea Vavassori 25 $1,249
Leo Borg 12 $1,218
Evan Furness 48 $1,212
Felix Gill 21 $1,211
Nicolas Moreno De Alboran 34 $1,209
Evgeny Karlovskiy 40 $1,202
Manuel Guinard 54 $1,166
Jesper De Jong 44 $1,166
Hiroki Moriya 40 $1,144
Yosuke Watanuki 27 $1,132
Adrian Andreev 33 $1,122
Ryan Peniston 37 $1,110
Kyrian Jacquet 38 $1,101
Arthur De Greef 16 $1,074
Stuart Parker 25 $1,045
Julian Lenz 42 $990
Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard 24 $989
Guillermo Garcia-Lopez 20 $955
Akira Santillan 31 $951
Giulio Zeppieri 33 $948
Harold Mayot 23 $948
Timo Legout 21 $941
Duje Ajdukovic 36 $922
Matteo Martineau 43 $922
Gonzalo Lama 31 $915
Tristan Lamasine 47 $912
Filip Misolic 23 $911
Nino Serdarusic 55 $910
Alexey Vatutin 45 $885
Ryan Harrison 16 $876
Matheus Pucinelli De Almeida 32 $875
Tim Van Rijthoven 36 $864
Gustavo Heide 15 $861
Michael Geerts 32 $858
Thiago Agustin Tirante 42 $850
Leandro Riedi 20 $841
Alexander Erler 42 $835
Paul Jubb 28 $827
Andrea Arnaboldi 42 $822
Agustin Velotti 28 $816
Henri Squire 15 $808
Pavel Kotov 43 $804
Alibek Kachmazov 28 $791
Roberto Quiroz 52 $780
Harry Bourchier 27 $780
Vitaliy Sachko 45 $775
Camilo Ugo Carabelli 48 $775
Dalibor Svrcina 31 $774
Darian King 17 $772
Raul Brancaccio 48 $772
Lucas Miedler 48 $751
Mirza Basic 35 $750
Adrian Menendez-Maceiras 34 $748
Gerardo Lopez Villasenor 34 $748
Zsombor Piros 33 $740
Pedro Cachin 45 $738
Yshai Oliel 43 $735
Aidan McHugh 44 $720
Mate Valkusz 20 $717
Teymuraz Gabashvili 47 $712
Timofey Skatov 51 $707
Evgenii Tiurnev 37 $698
Hernan Casanova 44 $687
Luca Nardi 26 $684
Pedja Krstin 41 $683
Luciano Darderi 21 $679
Lucas Catarina 49 $678
Michail Pervolarakis 40 $672
Matteo Arnaldi 30 $670
Otto Virtanen 26 $669
Ergi Kirkin 43 $654
Pawel Cias 23 $654
Lukas Neumayer 23 $649
Jonas Forejtek 43 $641
Oliver Crawford 29 $637
Jelle Sels 40 $624
Miljan Zekic 40 $607
Nicolas Mejia 47 $605
Nerman Fatic 34 $601
Noah Rubin 20 $601
Antoine Escoffier 45 $598
Viktor Durasovic 45 $594
Chun-hsin Tseng 41 $590
Johan Nikles 40 $583
Facundo Diaz Acosta 45 $582
Orlando Luz 45 $582
Calvin Hemery 30 $566
Eduard Esteve Lobato 33 $562
Jeremy Beale 21 $560
Carlos Gomez-Herrera 37 $552
Alexander Shevchenko 41 $548
Yu Hsiou Hsu 36 $540
Alexander Ritschard 36 $538
Geoffrey Blancaneaux 46 $533
Marvin Moeller 23 $524
Louis Wessels 35 $524
Alex Rybakov 36 $522
Oscar Jose Gutierrez 36 $521
Pedro Sakamoto 41 $520
Titouan Droguet 24 $519
Francesco Passaro 25 $508
Sandro Ehrat 29 $507
Santiago Fa Rodriguez Taverna 41 $504
Thomaz Bellucci 24 $503
Donald Young 25 $495
Filip Cristian Jianu 49 $494
Daniel Dutra da Silva 34 $493
Alvaro Lopez San Martin 39 $486
Gauthier Onclin 34 $485
Aziz Dougaz 44 $483
Michael Vrbensky 41 $483
Nikolas Sanchez Izquierdo 49 $480
Alexandar Lazarov 42 $480
Francesco Forti 42 $480
Naoki Nakagawa 27 $479
Valentin Royer 24 $475
Dragos Nicolae Madaras 37 $472
Petros Tsitsipas 29 $470
Goncalo Oliveira 61 $465
Nick Hardt 44 $458
Javier Barranco Cosano 51 $457
Jakub Paul 34 $456
Alexis Gautier 40 $455
Facundo Juarez 43 $453
Maximilian Neuchrist 29 $445
Nicolas Alvarez 38 $443
Riccardo Bonadio 56 $442
Gijs Brouwer 40 $441
Gilbert Klier Junior 37 $438
Alejandro Gonzalez 38 $437
Dan Added 50 $432
JC Aragone 42 $430
Sebastian Fanselow 37 $428
Elmar Ejupovic 31 $426
Nicolas Alvarez Varona 36 $423
Alex Hernandez 27 $421
Toby Alex Kodat 31 $417
Eric Vanshelboim 36 $416
Igor Sijsling 33 $416
Alessandro Bega 45 $403
Nick Chappell 48 $401
Damien Wenger 34 $396
Nicholas David Ionel 38 $393
Antoine Bellier 37 $390
Filip Peliwo 38 $387
Denis Yevseyev 52 $386
Marek Gengel 48 $384
Roberto Ortega-Olmedo 56 $383
Cristian Rodriguez 34 $381
Fabian Marozsan 39 $381
Yanki Erel 33 $380
Yan Bondarevskiy 41 $373
Georgii Kravchenko 39 $369
Kaichi Uchida 50 $366
Oleksii Krutykh 38 $365
Daniel Michalski 41 $362
Mats Rosenkranz 58 $359
Carlos Sanchez Jover 48 $355
Peter Heller 40 $354
Jonathan Mridha 34 $351
Mukund Sasikumar 40 $348
Alex Marti Pujolras 40 $348
Alexander Weis 45 $348
Oriol Roca Batalla 42 $343
Vladyslav Orlov 44 $340
Pol Martin Tiffon 46 $335
Genaro Alberto Olivieri 43 $333
Yunseong Chung 35 $332
Ryan Nijboer 40 $331
Giovanni Fonio 38 $327
Uladzimir Ignatik 43 $319
Jacopo Berrettini 41 $319
Bastian Malla 36 $317
Christian Langmo 45 $314
Clement Tabur 38 $310
Ivan Gakhov 48 $308
Jose Fco. Vidal Azorin 54 $307
Aldin Setkic 49 $307
Juan Pablo Paz 47 $305
Christopher Heyman 43 $298
Corentin Denolly 48 $297
Roman Andres Burruchaga 39 $295
Matias Zukas 48 $294
Bogdan Bobrov 52 $290
Joao Lucas Reis Da Silva 40 $286
Skander Mansouri 50 $280
Matthieu Perchicot 47 $275
David Poljak 46 $273
Tiago Cacao 46 $267
Mateus Alves 43 $265
Gage Brymer 44 $262
Benjamin Lock 47 $256
Rio Noguchi 56 $226
https://youtu.be/-ooL6vZpF20

How Much Do Tennis Players Make Per Match?

The top player in this category is also Novak Djokovic, who averaged $156,366 per match in 2021.

Below are the averages for the top 20 countries.

Below the table is a graph showing the average prize money earned by the top 20 prize money earners ($48,296), the amount earned by players ranked 90-100 ($20,493) and the amount earned by players ranked 490-500 ($249).

Rank Player Matches Played Average Earnings Per Match
1 Novak Djokovic 58 $156,366
2 Daniil Medvedev 71 $105,159
3 Alexander Zverev 74 $85,962
4 Matteo Berrettini 53 $60,399
5 Rafael Nadal 29 $50,994
6 Roger Federer 13 $49,820
7 Stefanos Tsitsipas 74 $47,346
8 Andrey Rublev 71 $44,105
9 Hubert Hurkacz 59 $36,835
10 Cameron Norrie 74 $34,038
11 Felix Auger-Aliassime 62 $33,158
12 Carlos Alcaraz 49 $33,017
13 Grigor Dimitrov 42 $32,603
14 Jannik Sinner 68 $31,758
15 Casper Ruud 72 $30,980
16 Denis Shapovalov 53 $30,189
17 Aslan Karatsev 54 $29,901
18 Diego Schwartzman 61 $28,171
19 Nikoloz Basilashvili 60 $27,546
20 Roberto Bautista Agut 54 $25,031
21 Taylor Fritz 56 $24,836

What About Taxes?

Tennis players pay tax, and their income is usually taxed based on where they earned it. It’s a complicated subject, but in short, tennis players pay tax.

Do you remember when Wimbledon was played? As Novak Djokovic was not a UK resident during Wimbledon, he wasn’t required to pay UK income tax on any prize money or appearance fees he received.

In the absence of a double tax treaty, they may have to pay more taxes based on the tax laws and treaties of their own country. As a result, you will see many players with residences in Monaco, Switzerland, the UAE, and the Bahamas.

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Are Tennis Players Deserving of More Money?

Increasingly, lower-ranked players are using social media as a platform to raise awareness of what they perceive to be an unfair pay structure in professional sports.

According to the prevailing opinion, the prize money for lower-ranked tennis players needs to be restructured.

I have a different take on it, however. Meritocracy instead of ill-conceived ‘equality’ agendas based on idealistic/fashionable ideas.

Generally, lower-ranked players seeking change want to make good money playing low-level tournaments without ever improving or really challenging themselves.

In a sense, it’s the same as thinking that people flipping burgers for a living should get the same pay as restaurant owners.

Is it possible for a 29-year-old tennis player who ranks at 1000 in the world and hasn’t made any progress over the last two years to live comfortably on tennis? Not at all.

Only the best of the best rise to the top of tennis, as most people fail to realize. The goal of all sports is to chase dreams; mediocrity is not rewarded. 

Does the current system of awarding prize money work well? No, not quite. More new players should be able to pursue that dream if the system is adjusted. 

It requires more money plugging into the game’s very bottom, where players can barely make ends meet while not accruing financial losses, but not living comfortably enough to pick up some nice paycheques for several years by hovering around the lower rungs of the game.

https://youtu.be/xBNF7U_tpWE

What’s Next?

Tennis should be more accessible to those without wealthy parents and tournaments should subsidize travel and accommodations rather than award prizes.

You are rewarded for improving under a progressive system that emphasizes talent rather than reputation. It is either a case of improving, being satisfied with earning very little or looking for a new gig for players who don’t win enough matches.

Competitive sports should reward success only; it is neither the responsibility of the sport nor the sponsors to subsidize mediocrity.

How do you feel about how much tennis players earn a year? Does it meet your expectations, do you think it’s good or bad? If you would like to know how much tennis players make on average every year, please let me know in the comments.

David Harris
Author

David is the founder and chief writer at Tennis Pursuits. A tennis fanatic, David has extensive experience of the game and has reviewed 100s of products to date. He is passionate about helping others on their tennis journey.

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