How much did world's number one tennis player Jannik Sinner get paid last season?

According to Tennis Head, in 2024, total prize money for players accounts for less than 18% of the revenue generated by tournaments. This figure is much lower to that in the NBA, where basketball stars receive about 50% of league revenue, and MLB and NFL athletes, who earn 47–48%.

Tennis Head did not provide specific revenue figures for the ATP Tour competitions in 2024. However, ATP reports indicate the organization has called for a 50% increase in sponsorship for the 2024 season, expecting to reach an 89% sponsorship boost by 2026. The ATP, which represents the rights and obligations of its players, has signed contracts with dozens of major brands over the years, including Lexus, Yokohama, Lacoste, Dunlop and Infosys.

A corner of the center court at the Australian Open, the tournament that generates the most revenue in tennis. Photo by Reuters

Last year, the ATP introduced its OneVision strategy, aiming to commercialize tennis more effectively by creating new sponsorship categories and expanding select tournaments, like extending Masters 1000 events from 8 to 12 days. While this move has led to higher incomes for many players, particularly those ranked lower who tend to exit tournaments early, the increase in prize money is still small the size of the ATP's new sponsorship deals.

Sinner, the world's number one tennis player, earned $17 million in prize money last year, the highest total in half a decade. To reach this figure, the Italian played nearly 80 matches over 11 months.

Discontent over the income gap between tennis and other major sports prompted Novak Djokovic to form the Professional Tennis Players Association (PTPA) in 2016 in order to ask for more benefits. Djokovic, who is considered the greatest tennis player ever, has repeatedly criticized the ATP for how it distributes prize money and for the demanding tournament schedule. He calls the ATP's compensation system outdated, arguing it fails to "reflect the player as the center of the sport."

While NBA, NFL, and MLB athletes receive a much larger share of their leagues' revenues, tennis players earn only a small fraction, even though they are the sport's main attraction.

As a result, some top players have begun skipping ATP Tour events in favor of exhibition tournaments like the Six Kings Slam, where Sinner alone earned winnings equivalent to a third of his entire ATP season prize money. Rafael Nadal, Carlos Alcaraz and Djokovic also did not refuse the chance to pocket millions of dollars after a few days playing in Saudi Arabia.

Even so, Djokovic still competed in the ATP 500 Qatar Open last week, partly due to a multi-million dollar contract with Qatar Airways. Alcaraz and Sinner are also expected to appear in Doha now that the tournament has been upgraded from ATP 250 to ATP 500, featuring more lucrative prize money.