The highest earning tennis players in the world

With millions on the line this Australian Open, we take a look at the players who pocketed the most in prize money during the last calendar year

By Cayle Reid

Published: Jan 13, 2025

OF THE 64 TROPHIES that can be won on the ATP and WTA tours, few are more coveted than the Australian Open. As the first grand slam on the calendar, the Australian Open presents an opportunity for rising talents to announce themselves, for veterans to demonstrate the results of an offseason of hard work, and above all, a chance at a grand slam title. But that’s not the only reason players want to win.

The Australian Open offers a total prize pool of more than $96.5 million AUD, a record sum that’s more than ten per cent bigger than last year’s purse. A single win – or even an appearance – at the tournament is enough to cover most people’s yearly salaries. Take Nick Kyrgios for example. The 2022 Wimbledon finalist has been out of action for the better part of two years due to multiple nagging injuries. He won’t be needing worker’s comp though, because he and everyone else participating in the first round of the tournament will net $135,000 by simply showing up, regardless of whether or not they win.

Evidently, tennis pays well. You need only to follow the Instagram accounts of top ten ranked players and witness the lavish lifestyles they live for proof of that. Times are changing though. For the last two decades or so, a member of the big three (Novak Djokovic, Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal) or on rare occasions Andy Murray and Stan Wawrinka, would top any list of the highest earning players in tennis, that’s simply not the case anymore.

With Federer retired, Wawrinka, Murray and Nadal all putting up their final fights against father time and even Djokovic showing signs of slowing down, the rankings of the highest earning tennis players look markedly different than what fans are accustomed to. See for yourself below, where we rank the highest earning men’s and women’s players.

All figures have been converted to AUD and are accurate as of January 13th 2024.

Top 10 richest tennis players in the world

Honourable mention: Alex de Minaur

2024 earnings: $7.06 million

Truth be told, Alex de Minaur only earnt the 15th most of any ATP or WTA player in 2024, but our Australian bias – which we’ll readily admit to having – means we think he deserves a mention. De Minaur took his game to another level in 2024, tallying five wins against top ten-ranked players while cementing his own place inside the top ten. The 25-year-old won the Mexican Open back in March, the Libema Open in June, made the final of the Rotterdam Open, and has been consistently performing on the bigger stages at grand slams, hence why he’s trending towards the top of his sport’s highest earners for the first time.

10. Casper Ruud

2024 earnings: $9.32 million

Casper Ruud was knocked out by a pair of Australians during his first two finals of 2024. First by Jordan Thompson at the Los Cabos Open, and then a week later by Alex de Minaur at the Mexican Open. He also came up short against Stefanos Tsitsipas in the final of the Monte Carlo Masters. Don’t feel too bad for Ruud though, he still gets paid for making all those finals he loses. And he bounced back with wins at the Barcelona and Geneva Opens, which are sure to have boosted his bank account. A semifinal appearance at the French Open also helped.

9. Jasmine Paolini

2024 earnings: $9.45 million

Where did Jasmine Paolini come from? At the start of 2024, the 28-year-old had never been ranked higher than 29th, but during a career-best year, she made the singles and doubles final at the French Open and the singles final at Wimbledon. And although she lost all three of those matches, she’s still rocketed up the WTA rankings all the way to fourth, while also earning some decent money from her winnings.

8. Daniil Medvedev

2024 earnings: $10.58 million

Current world number five Daniil Medvedev’s recent history has been characterised by near misses. Medvedev failed to win a title in 2024 and has built a reputation for falling down at the last hurdle, winning only one grand slam from six appearances in grand slam finals. The Russian has come agonisingly close to some major hardware recently though, as the runner up at the Australian Open and Indian Wells Masters, and a semi-finalist at the Dubai Championships, Miami Masters and Wimbledon in 2024. These deep runs earnt Medvedev plenty of cash, but we’re fairly certain he’d prefer the trophies over the money.

7. Taylor Fritz

2024 earnings: $13.39 million

2024 was easily the best year of Taylor Fritz’s career, and his earnings reflect that. The American’s season actually got off to a rough start, as he sunk as low as 15th in the ATP rankings. Towards the end of the year, however, he bounced back in a big way. With wins at the Delray Beach Open and Eastbourne International, coupled with appearances in the final of the US Open and ATP Finals, Fritz was able to climb to a career high ranking of fourth and has plenty of cash to splash as a result.

6. Iga Swiatek

2024 earnings: $13.88 million

Perhaps best described as the WTA’s answer to Rafael Nadal, Iga Swiatek is a dominant force on clay courts, winning four of the last five French Opens. She’s been less successful on other surfaces, having only ever reached the quarter finals at Wimbledon, and the 2022 US Open being her only other grand slam win. Regardless, Swiatek is at the forefront of women’s tennis right now and likely will be for the foreseeable future. She’s even out-earned most of her male counterparts so far this year, courtesy of a title at the Qatar Open, three Masters victories at Indian Wells, the Madrid Open and the Italian Open, and yet another grand slam victory at the French Open.

Richest Tennis Players — INSTAGRAM | @cocogauff

5. Coco Gauff

2024 earnings: $15.17 million

If there’s one player on the WTA tour that you don’t want to meet in a final, it’s Coco Gauff. The 20-year-old phenom has nine wins to just one loss in finals, with her only defeat coming in the 2022 French Open decider. If Gauff makes a final, she usually wins it, and that rang true in 2024, a year in which she won the Auckland Open, China Masters and WTA Finals. The latter of which carries the most prize money of any WTA event, netting Gauff most of her 2024 earnings.

4. Aryna Sabalenka

2024 earnings: $15.17 million

It’s refreshing to see WTA stars so high up on a list of tennis’ highest earning players, but it’s to be expected as more and more events that appear on both the ATP and WTA tours are handing out equal prize money. Aryna Sabalenka defended her Australian Open crown to start 2024 and followedd it up with victories at the Cincinnati and Wuhan Masters, and the US Open. As a result of her bumper year, Sabalenka has now eclipsed Iga Swiatek in the WTA rankings, an achievement that once looked impossible. So too has Sabalenka’s earnings overtaken those of her Polish adversary.

3. Carlos Alcaraz

2024 earnings: $16.81 million

2024 got off to a slow for Carlos Alcaraz, at least compared to what we’re used to seeing from the Spanish phenom. Continually hampered by injuries, the current world number three went out in the quarterfinals at the Australian Open, pulled out of his home event at the Madrid Open, and besides winning the Indian Wells Masters, didn’t entirely look himself. Nevertheless, Alcaraz’s bank account was never in peril. He bounced back by winning his third grand slam at the French Open and defending his title at Wimbledon a month later. It goes without saying, but winning two grand slams in a single year will earn you quite a lot of coin.

2. Alex Zverev

2024 earnings: $18.66 million

Alex Zverev’s return from injury and comeback season, during which he won both the Paris and Rome Masters and made the final of the French Open, has largely been overshadowed by the case brought against him by the mother of his child due to accusations of physical abuse. Zverev was charged $735,000 in 2023 for allegedly assaulting his partner and reached an out of court settlement for around $300,000 in 2024, but controversially, his earnings have already far surpassed that figure.

1. Jannik Sinner

2024 earnings: $32.04 million

At the top of the list, Jannik Sinner blows the field out of the water. And what a year it was for the Italian. Tennis media, fans and pundits were quick to crown Carlos Alcaraz as the heir apparent to Djokovic’s throne after the Spanish wunderkind racked up multiple grand slam titles before turning 21. Now, Jannik Sinner has emerged as the sport’s hegemon, winning the Australian Open, Rotterdam Open, Miami Masters, Halle Open, Cincinnati Masters, US Open, Shanghai Masters and ATP Finals in 2024. Sinner finished his career-best year with a 73-6 win/loss record and comfortably sits atop the ATP’s world rankings by a few thousand points, which is reflected by his prize money.

Who is the richest tennis player of all time?

That would be the big-serving Brașov Bulldozer, better known as Ion Tiriac. Who? We don’t blame you if you haven’t heard of Tiriac, who only has one grand slam to his name (the 1970 French Open doubles title) peaked at a world ranking of 19th and never made it past the quarterfinals in singles at a grand slam. You see, Tiriac didn’t make his money playing tennis, he amassed his fortune of an estimated $3.6 billion AUD from his business pursuits. After the downfall of Romania’s communist regime, Tiriac founded what would become UniCredit Bank Romania, one of nation’s first privately owned banks and now its largest.

Tiriac was also an Olympic ice hockey player, has the distinction of being the first man to defeat a woman in a professional tennis match and was the subject of an intriguing profile in the New York Times authored by noted American writer John McPhee. In the article, McPhee writes that Tiriac’s drooping moustache, laid back attitude and general mystique suggests that he “has been to places most people do not imagine exist. He appears to be a panatela ad, a triple agent from Alexandria, a used-car salesman from central Marrakesh. Tiriac has the air of a man who is about to close a deal in a back room behind a back room.”