This year has been a historic one in terms of player earnings as we saw four players on the ATP Tour pass the $10 million mark, which is a first.
Any time you have a first in a sport like tennis, it's impressive. The sport has a very long history; however, this feat is actually one that will likely be eclipsed multiple times in the coming decade.
It's the earnings that increase every year because the sport grows every year. This year saw four players earn over 10 million in prize money, which is a first.
We never saw that happen in years past because less money was allocated generally. Parity certainly contributed to the feat this year, but we had parity in years past.
For years, the Big Four dominated the sport, and it's quite interesting that there was never a year where all of them went past $10 million. It seems pretty crazy, but that just shows how much the sport has grown recently and how the prize money pools have increased.
Novak Djokovic is leading the list with basically just shy of $16 million dollars, and that's without any of the $20 million bonus money, which proved crucial for this feat. Carlos Alcaraz is second with about $800.000 less than Djokovic, $4.5 million of which is from the bonus pool.
Daniil Medvedev and Jannik Sinner complete the list of players who finished over $10 million in prize money, but neither would have done it without the bonus money. Medvedev got $2.3 million, pushing him to $11.5 million overall, while Jannik Sinner got $2.1 million, which pushed him to $10.4 million.
The fact that the bonus pool was as big as it was certainly helped this feat, but expect more to come in the future. We might see four players becoming the norm, and then maybe five players as well. Andrey Rublev was 5th this year, and he was quite a long way away at $6.5 million.