The highest earning tennis players of 2026, so far

With millions on the line at French Open, we take a look at the players who have pocketed the most in prize money this year

By Cayle Reid

Published: May 27, 2026

OF THE 64 TITLES that can be won on the ATP and WTA tours, few are more coveted than the French Open. As the only grand slam on a clay court, playing at Roland Garros is a special occasion for every player – and an opportunity for the clay court specialists to show out. But of course, there are more benefits to playing tennis than the prestige that comes with it.

The French Open offers a total prize pool of more than $100 million AUD. A single win – or even an appearance – at the tournament is enough to cover most people’s yearly salaries. By simply showing up and participating in the first round of the tournament, players will net $141,000, regardless of whether they win or lose. While that’s a tidy sum for a regular Joe like you or me, it’s actually part of why players are boycotting their media duties during this year’s tournament – they argue they should be paid more.

Evidently, tennis is a lucrative business to be in. Even if the players believe they should be earning a greater share of tournament revenue, you need only to follow the Instagram accounts of the top ten-ranked players to see that they live fairly comfortably.

Below, we rank the richest men’s and women’s players of 2026 based on their winnings so far this season.

All figures have been converted to AUD and are accurate as of May 27, 2026.

Top 10 richest tennis players in the world

10. Alex De Minaur

2026 earnings: $2.64 million

Esquire cover alum Alex De Minaur has a had a good couple of years, rising to a career best sixth in the ATP rankings. Earlier this year, he made it to the quarter finals of his home slam and followed it up with a win at the Rotterdam Open. He has since hit a rough patch of form, but the money has kept rolling in.

9. Daniil Medvedev

2026 earnings: $3.23 million

Daniil Medvedev has rebounded from a down year in 2025 to rejoin the ATP top ten. He won the Dubai Tennis Championships back in March and reached the final at the Indian Wells Masters. Evidently, both come with decent prizes.

8. Jessica Pegula

2026 earnings: $3.63 million

JPeg reached the semi finals of the Australian Open in January and has carried her strong run of form into the French Open. This year, she has won the Dubai Tennis Championships and Charleston Open to earn some solid prizes. Although, seeing as her dad is Terry Pegula, who owns the NFL’s Buffalo Bills and the NHL’s Buffalo Sabres, she could likely retire today and never have to worry about money again.

7. Coco Gauff

2026 earnings: $3.71 million

Coco Gauff is yet to win a title in 2026, but that hasn’t prevented her from raking in some sizeable earnings. Deep runs at the Australian Open, Dubai Tennis Championships, Miami Open and Italian Open have ensured her pockets have remained flush with cash.

6. Elina Svitolina

2026 earnings: $3.94 million

Just three years ago Elina Svitolina was ranked outside of the WTA’s top 1,000. Now she’s back inside the top ten following a string of deep runs at multiple tournaments. She won the ASB Open in Auckland to start the year. Then she followed it up with her best ever performance at the Australian Open, making it to the semi finals. She also made it to the final of the Dubai Tennis Championships, the semis at Indian Wells and the Stuttgart Open, and most recently she claimed her 20th WTA title at the Italian Open.

5. Alex Zverev

2026 earnings: $4.51 million

Jannik Sinner is haunting Alex Zverev this season, defeating the German in the semi finals or later at three seperate Masters tournaments. Had Zverev managed an upset in any of those comps, he’d be further up this list. But a deep run still comes with a large pay package. As always, Zverev’s achievements have been largely overshadowed by accusations of physical abuse brought against him by the mother of his child. 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. Controversially, his earnings have already far surpassed that figure.

Tennis players — INSTAGRAM | @arynasabalenka

4. Aryna Sabalenka

2026 earnings: $5.68 million

The incumbent WTA world number one has picked up where she left off after a career-best 2025 season. She won her first tournament of 2026, the Brisbane International, and reached a fourth consecutive Australian Open final before being downed by Elena Rybakina. She bounced back to defeat Rybakina at Indian Wells and completed the sunshine double with a win at the Miami Open. Sabalenka is hard to beat, and will be one of the favourites to lift the trophy at Roland Garros.

3. Elena Rybakina

2026 earnings: $5.88 million

The reigning Australian Open champion has risen to a career high WTA ranking of second and is the highest paid women’s player of 2026. Rybakina followed up her AO victory with a trip to the final of Indian Wells and another title at the Stuttgart Open. The 26-year-old nabbed $4.15 million for winning the AO, the largest prize handed out so far this year.

2. Carlos Alcaraz

2026 earnings: $6.1 million

Carlos Alcaraz, the highest earning tennis player of 2025, began 2026 by winning the Australian Open and securing its $4.15 million prize. He went on to win the Qatar Open and made it to the final of the Monte Carlo Masters, but a wrist injury has kept him out of the French Open. Alcaraz has also ruled himself out of Wimbledon. We doubt he’ll be rushing to get back on court. It’s not like he needs the money.

1. Jannik Sinner

2026 earnings: $9.38 million

After being knocked out in the semi finals of the Australian Open, Jannik Sinner pulled off the sunshine double by winning both the Indian Wells Masters and Miami Masters. He followed that up with wins at the Monte Carlo Masters, Madrid Masters and Rome Masters. That’s right, Sinner has won all five Masters tournaments on the ATP tour so far this year. He’s now the heavy favourite to win the French Open and, with the news of Alcaraz’s injury, Wimbledon. Barring an extreme slump in form, Sinner will likely finish 2026 as tennis’ highest earning player.

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.”