Top 5 Tennis Prize Pools in 2019

The 2019 WTA Finals set a new record for a non-major tournament.

In its first year as the title sponsor, Shiseido set the bar with an impressive prize pool.

Perhaps even more impressive is the fact that the 2019 WTA Finals also set another record.

The $4,420,000 paid to champion Ashleigh Barty was the biggest individual prize ever in tennis history, including both men and women.

One round-robin match win in the group stage pays a generous $690,000.

An undefeated run to the championship would have paid the maximum of $4,725,000.

4. Australian Open – AU$62,500,000

Despite being fourth among the four major tournaments, the Australian Open still offered a generous payout.

The first Slam of the season saw a significant increase in its purse for the 2019 edition.

It went from AU$55,000,000 in 2018 to AU$62,500,000, a 14% increase.

The 2019 edition set another record for the biggest prize pool in the tournament’s history.

With an AU$4,100,000 prize, the Singles tournaments topped the list.

Main draw qualifiers won AU$75,000, a respectable 25% increase compared to the previous year.

The French Open makes it to the top 3 once again.

This year’s edition had a relatively modest increase in its prize pool compared to the other Slams.

It went up from €39,197,000 to €42,661,000, an 8% increase.

The Singles tournaments paid out €2,300,000 to the winners.

It’s worth pointing out that the Roland Garros tournament made an additional effort to increase the payout to the lower rounds.

Players qualifying for the main draw were rewarded with €46,000, a sizeable 15% increase.

The payout for players eliminated from the first qualifying round went up to €7,000, a 16% increase compared to 2018.

2. Wimbledon – £38,000,000

The oldest and most prestigious tournament in tennis also has a very generous prize pool.

Wimbledon pays out a total of £38,000,000, placing it near the top of this list.

The Championships saw a respectable and sizeable increase in its prize purse.

After paying out a total of £34,000,000 in 2018, the tournament raised its prize pool by 11%.

This year’s edition of the Slam had 128 singles and 64 doubles entrants in the men and women tournaments as well as 48 mixed doubles.

The singles tournament, as usual, offers the biggest prize at £2,350,000 to the winner.

For yet another year, the US Open topped the list by offering the biggest prize pool in tennis.

The fourth and final Slam of the season increased its total by an impressive 13.2% compared to its record-setting $53,000,000 prize pool from the previous year.

The singles winner was rewarded with $3,850,000, making it the second-biggest individual payout of the season behind the WTA Finals.

One year after the other, the US Open continues to raise the bar for prize money.

With competition coming from the WTA Finals, it will be interesting to see if the last major of the season will offer an even richer purse for 2020.