Tennis News: Prize money in 2022: Iga Swiatek tops the list on women's side, while Carlos Alcaraz passes $10m milestone
The ATP world number one, Carlos Alcaraz, has scripted history as the first teenager to acquire $10 million or more in prize money in one season at the age of 19
Carlos Alcaraz and Iga Swiatek top the money list for 2022.The players with the highest year-end prize money are based on the ATP and WTA rankings. So Alcaraz and women's number one Iga Swiatek topped both lists.
They even made history and left a massive impact on the tennis fraternity. Besides being the first teenager to make $10 million or more, 19-year-old Alcaraz became the first man besides Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic, and Andy Murray to earn as much within a season.
Before Alcaraz, the youngest player to have secured more than that was 23-year-old Ashleigh Barty in 2019. Alcaraz is fifth behind tennis' most outstanding, with Murray, who has done it once, Roger Federer (twice), Rafael Nadal (four times), and Novak Djokovic (eight times).
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Carlos Alcaraz got $2.6 million in prize money for winning the <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/USOpen2022?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#USOpen2022</a>, pushing his 2022 on-court earnings to $7.4 million—$700,000 ahead of second-place Rafael Nadal. <a href="https://t.co/oqUP6rR00l">https://t.co/oqUP6rR00l</a></p>— Sportico (@Sportico) <a href="https://twitter.com/Sportico/status/1569327316026945538?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 12, 2022</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
In addition, no other player has earned $20 million in a single season. Meanwhile, Iga Swiatek's total prize money for 2022 is the fifth-highest amount in a single season in WTA history.
Swiatek secured more money than Spaniard legend Nadal in 2022 and was at a comparable deficit against Alcaraz and Djokovic. The Serbian thrashed Casper Ruud in straight sets to win the ATP Finals in Turin, Italy, which resulted in a payday of $ 4.74 million, the highest in tennis history.
Swiatek earned $59,000 less than Djokovic, who snapped up $9.88 million. This is impressive, considering the pay gap in most tennis events. Although the four major tournaments have paid equal salaries to men and women since 2007, the deficit is still huge in the remaining big-ticket competitions.
The total prize money secured from all eight ATP Masters 1000 tournaments in 2022 equalled $59 million, while players only earned $35.9 million for the same number of WTA 1000 events.
Swiatek's record in 2022 just proved how efficient she was on the women's tour.
Top 10 players with the highest prize money in ATP in 2022
Carlos Alcaraz - $10,102,330
Novak Djokovic - $9,934,582
Rafael Nadal - $9,368,326
Casper Ruud - $8,126,816
Stefanos Tsitsipas - $6,614,416
Felix Auger-Aliassime - $4,801,292
Andrey Rublev - $4,666,954
Taylor Fritz - $4,570,481
Daniil Medvedev - $4,178,524
Hubert Hurkacz - $3,764,164
Top 10 players with the highest prize money in WTA in 2022
Iga Swiatek - $9,875,525
Ons Jabeur- $4,997,069
Caroline Garcia - $3,729,317
Elena Rybakina - $3,613,440
Jessica Pegula - $3,611,716
Coco Gauff - $3,051,953
Maria Sakkari - $2,481,419
Aryna Sabalenka - $2,461,320
Ashleigh Barty - $2,289,320
Simona Halep -$2,253,197
Top five highest prize money totals of all time in ATP history
Novak Djokovic (2015) - $21,646,145
Andy Murray (2016) - $16,349,701
Rafael Nadal (2019) - $16,349,586
Novak Djokovic (2018) - $15,967,184
Rafael Nadal (2017) - $15,864,000
Top five highest prize money totals of all time in WTA history
Serena Williams (2013) - $12,385,572
Ashleigh Barty (2019) - $11,307,587
Serena Williams (2015) - $10,582,642
Angelique Kerber (2016) - $10,136,615
Iga Swiatek (2022) - $9,875,525