Seven tennis players have earned more than $20m in prize money and endorsements over the past 12 months with Carlos Alcaraz topping the latest list.
Forbes has released its “Highest-Paid Tennis Players 2024” figures and Alcaraz is the only player to have cracked the $40m milestone with the Spaniard’s earnings coming on the back of his success at this year’s French Open and Wimbledon.
According to the American business magazine, the list only includes players who have been active over the past 12 months and the period starts at the 2023 US Open and includes this year’s Olympics with prize money for all ATP Tour events and Olympic medal bonuses also reflected.
Off-court earnings include “endorsements, appearances, licensing and memorabilia, as well as cash returns from any businesses in which the athlete has a significant interest”.
Roger Federer dominated this list in the past as he was top from 2015 until 2022 with his best year coming in 2022 when he was estimated to have earned $106.3 million with $100m coming from off-court earnings.
With Federer retiring in September 2022, Djokovic took over at the top last year as he made $38.4m, but he has to settle for second-best again.
Naomi Osaka, Casper Ruud and Aryna Sabalenka complete the top 10, but the trio are well away from the $20m mark with Osaka earning $14.6m, Ruud $13.9m and Sabalenka $13.7m.
2021 US Open champion Daniil Medvedev is currently fourth in the ATP prize-money earners list for 2024 as he sits on $3,927,413 for 2024. His big on-court earnings will have come from his 2023 US Open and 2024 Australian Open runners-up trophies as he made $7.3m from prize money.
The former world No 1 has endorsement agreements with the likes of Lacoste, Tecnifibre and BMW and off-court he earned $13m.
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Tennis great Rafael Nadal has played only a handful of matches over the past two years so unsurprisingly $23m of his total earnings have come from off-court agreements.
Nike, Richard Mille and Kia are some of his main sponsors.
Nadal is second in the ATP all-time prize money earners list as he has collected US$134,946,100 over the years.
World No 1 Jannik Sinner won his maiden Grand Slam at the Australian Open at the start of 2024 and he has already collected just over $7m in prize money so far in 2024 to take him to $11.6m in on-court earnings over the past 12 months.
Sinner’s off-court fortunes grew by $15m with Nike, Head, Alfa Romeo and Gucci among his sponsors.
World No 1 Iga Swiatek won the 2023 WTA Finals in November undefeated so added $3m to her bank account while this year she sits on $6,8m in prize money already for a total of $11.7m over the past 12 months.
Her $15m off-court earnings will have been boosted by deals with On, Porsche, Visa and Lancôme.
Coco Gauff was seventh on the 2023 list, but she finds herself in the top three this time around thanks to her US Open title run last year as she picked up a $3,000,000 winner’s cheque.
The American hasn’t been at her best so far this year yet she sits on $2,9m in terms of prize money.
Gauff collected $20m in off-court earnings over the past year with New Balance, Head and Barilla as her main sponsors.
Tennis legend Novak Djokovic won the US Open and ATP Finals last year while he has already won $3,6m prize money so far this year with most of that coming from his Wimbledon runners-up finish. He also collected a $218,000 bonus for winning gold at the Paris Olympics.
His off-court earnings stands at $25m for the 12-month period, but that drafs the US$184,265,269 he has collected in prize money during his illustrious career.
Carlos Alcaraz has won two of the three Grand Slams so far in 2024 as he collected $2,6m when he won the French Open and $3,4m for his Wimbledon title run.
His off-court earnings for the past 12 months sits at $32m and Nike, Babolat, Rolex and Louis Vuitton are some of his sponsors.
Alcaraz already sits ninth in the all-time list for prize money earnings with $34,992,775 and could be in the top five a year from now.
