On Tuesday, the governing body of men's tennis, ATP, announced an increased bonus pool distribution to unparalleled levels to the benefit of players and tournaments.
Last year, the ATP signed on a historic breakthrough era of profit sharing as part of its strategic plan for widespread reform in player compensation and incentives termed the OneVision plan which will now take effect this year and reward the bonuses to players and tournaments.
The total bonus pool stands at $33.5 million for the 2023 season. It is worth noting that the ATP committed $20 million to reward the Top 30 players with the highest number of cumulative points at the Masters 1000 level and the year-end championships.
From the total bonus pool, $1.3 million has been distributed to the top five players with the most points at the ATP 500 level. Russia's Daniil Medvedev was the biggest beneficiary, pocketing $600,000 for topping the charts in that category.
And now an additional $12.5 million from the $33.5 million will be shared equally between players and tournaments as per the ATP announcement. The profit-sharing formula was first incepted in 2020, but it took two years before a unanimous decision was reached.
In its press release, the ATP noted that for the first time, players will have access to audited financial records of tournaments, in order to "build unprecedented trust and transparency" of profit figures. Players have an extra incentive above on-site prize money.
The ATP clarified that the additional bonus payment represents the players' share of profits generated during the 2022 season across the nine ATP Masters 1000 tournaments. Players who played at those events have already earned prize money, but will now earn a 50% bonus share for their performances, with the other half going to tournaments.
The ATP has also published a Q&A document pertaining to the bonus. Profit calculation has been narrowed down to the value of points earned. 1 point is equated to $300 in bonus payments. Greece's Stefanos Tsitsipas will bank $919,000 for his performances across eight Masters events he played.
Tsitsipas is the top earner, ahead of Carlos Alcaraz ($822K), Novak Djokovic ($591K), Taylor Fritz ($475K) and Casper Ruud ($469K) who account for the higher shares.