Breakdown Of Players Prize Money [2024]

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

Average WTA Tennis Player Earnings in 2021

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.

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.

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.

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).

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. We have discussed this in more detail in this article we wrote last year. 

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? In short, not really.

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 and this is no difference in tennis. 

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.

Final Thoughts

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.