The highest earning tennis players of 2026, so far
With millions on the line at Australian Open, we take a look at the players who have pocketed the most in prize money this year
OF THE 64 TITLES that can be won on the ATP and WTA tours, few are more coveted than the Australian Open. As the first grand slam of the year, playing in Melbourne is a special occasion for every player – and historically, it’s been a reliable predictor of how the seasn ahead will play out. But of course, there are more benefits to playing tennis than the prestige that comes with it.
The Australian Open offers a total prize pool of more than $111.5 million AUD, a record sum that’s 16 per cent larger than last year’s purse. 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 $132,000, regardless of whether they win or lose.
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 Serena Williams, Andy Murray or Stan Wawrinka would top any list of the highest earning players in tennis, that’s simply not the case anymore.
With Federer, Nadal, Williams and Murray retired, and Wawrinka and Djokovic in the death throes of their careers, 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 richest men’s and women’s players of 2026 based on their earnings in the 2025 calendar year.
All figures have been converted to AUD and are accurate as of January 22, 2026.
Top 10 richest tennis players in the world
10. Lorenzo Musetti
2025 earnings: $9.47 million
First up, it’s our latest cover star Lorenzo Musetti. Musetti entered 2025 ranked 16th, but those with keen judgment could sense a breakthrough coming. It ended up being a career-best year for Musetti, who made the final of the Monte Carlo Masters, the semifinals of the French Open, the quarterfinals of the US Open, and, for the first time in his career, the ATP Finals.
9. Alex De Minaur
2025 earnings: $9.87 million
Another Esquire cover alum, Alex De Minaur followed up a strong 2024 showing by reaching the quarterfinals at his home slam for the first time. He would go on to win the Washington Open and make it to the knockout stage of the ATP Finals, a career-best effort – and one that came with a big cash prize.
8. Amanda Anisimova
2025 earnings: $10.74 million
At this time last year, Amanda Anisimova was ranked 41st in the world. Since then, she has surged all the way up to 3rd. Anisimova’s high ranking and considerable earnings have come off the back of titles at the Qatar Open and China Open, as well as runner-up placings at both Wimbledon and the US Open.
7. Alex Zverev
2025 earnings: $11.07 million
With Jannik Sinner banned and Carlos Alcaraz injured, Alex Zverev was widely expected to dominate the early tournaments of 2025. But since being defeated by the Sinner in the Australian Open final, Zverev has only managed to win a single tournament, the Munich Open. 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.
6. Coco Gauff
2025 earnings: $11.8 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 21-year-old phenom has eleven wins to just three losses in finals, with her most recent wins coming at the French Open and Wuhan Open. If Gauff makes a final, she usually wins it, and that rang true in 2025.
5. Elena Rybakina
2025 earnings: $12.5 million
After spending a long time in the WTA top five, former Wimbledon champion Elena Rybakin sank down to 13th in the rankings in the middle of 2025. She bounced back to win the WTA Finals, however, which carries the most prize money of any WTA tournament.
4. Iga Swiatek
2025 earnings: $15 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 six French Opens. 2025, however, has been a down year by her standards, as she’s had her number one ranking slip from her grasp. That said, titles at Wimbledon and the Cincinnati Masters, as well as deep runs at various other tournaments, have still earned Swiatek a decent chunk of change, the second most of any women’s player.
3. Aryna Sabalenka
2025 earnings: $22.21 million
Aryna Sabalenka made it to the final of the Australian Open, French Open, Indian Wells and Stuttgart Open, while also winning the US Open, WTA Finals and Miami and Madrid Masters. It once looked like Sabalenka may never escape Iga Swiatek’s shadow, but she now has a more than three thousand-point lead over her closest rival in the current WTA rankings.
2. Jannik Sinner
2025 earnings: $28.3 million
In the wake of the Big 3’s departure, Jannik Sinner has emerged as one half of men’s tennis’ new duopoly. Sinner defended his title at the 2025 Australian Open before being banned from competition for three months. But despite not being able to defend his points for a quarter of the season, Sinner still sits second in the ATP’s world rankings victories at Wimbledon and the ATP Finals, as well as runner-up appearances at the French Open and US Open. And clearly, Sinner’s time off hasn’t made too much of a dent in his savings.
1. Carlos Alcaraz
2025 earnings: $31.6 million
Carlos Alcaraz was the highest earning tennis player of 2025. The Spaniard has won the Monte Carlo Masters, Rome Masters and Cincinnati Masters, as well as the French Open and US Open last season. Barring injuries, it seems a fairly safe bet that either Alcaraz or Sinner will continue topping this list for years to come.
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.”
What tennis players have earnt the most in prize money over the last five years?
2020: Novak Djokovic, $10.47 million
2021: Novak Djokovic, $14.80 million
2022: Carlos Alcaraz, $16.43 million
2023: Novak Djokovic, $25.94 million
2024: Jannik Sinner, $32.04 million
2025: Carlos Alcaraz, $31.6 million
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