Australian Open prize money a big disappointment compared to other Grand Slams
The first Grand Slam of 2025 is about to reach a thrilling conclusion, but the winner is set to claim a much smaller windfall than the champion at last year’s major championships.
Men and women are handed the same prize money at the four Grand Slam events, with that parity ensuring tennis is one of the most lucrative sports in the world for female athletes.
World No 1 Aryna Sabalenka topped the prize money charts in women’s tennis in 2024 as she took home $9,729,260, with that figure calculated in US dollars, while 2024 WTA Finals winner Coco Gauff was second on that list with $9,353,847 and Iga Swiatek was third with $8,550,693.
A large chunk of Sabelenka’s prize money haul came as she won the US Open and collected $3,600,000, but she won’t get anything like that amount if she wins a third successive Australian Open title.
The top prize in Melbourne is $3,500,000, with that figure paid in Australian dollars. Converted into the US currency, it works out at around $2.2million.
That is a stunning prize money gap between the US Open and Australian Open and there is a similar issue when we look at Wimbledon’s prize money from last year.
Carlos Alcaraz and Barbora Krejcikova both won £2,700,000 after they won the singles finals on Wimbledon’s Centre Court last summer, which translates into $3,34million in US dollars.
The French Open also pay more to their champions, with almost $ 2.5million handed out to their champions last June.
So despite hosting a three-week tournament that attracts huge crowds and lavish sponsorship deals, the Australian Open is lagging behind in the prize money stakes.
While male and female players are equally paid in Grand Slam events, the pay gap is evident in regular tour events, with the ATP Tour boasting substantially bigger broadcast and sponsorship deals for their events compared to the WTA Tour.
This explains why the women players compete for much lower prize money in most regular tour events, with Sabalenka speaking out against this last year.
“From the TV point of view, from the ticket selling, from every point of view, it’s unfair,” Sabalenka said.
“Of course, guys are always going to be physically stronger than women but it doesn’t mean we’re not working as hard as they do. Women deserve to be paid an equal amount of money that men do.”
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There is no doubt that female tennis players are earning more money than athletes in most sports, but Australian Open chiefs will be keen to ensure they are not known at the low-pay Grand Slam.
- Australian Open total prize pool of $96.5 million, up 11.56 per cent on 2024
- Prize money increases in every round
- First round qualifiers – $35,000, up 12 per cent
- First round doubles teams – $40,000, up 11 per cent
- First round main draw singles players – $132,000, up 10 per cent
- Players reaching the second round – $200,000, up 11 per cent
- Semi-finalists earn $1.1 million, up 11 per cent
- Singles champions take home $3.5 million, up 11 per cent
- Australian Open prize money has more than doubled (119 per cent) from $44 million in 2016 (10 years) and increased more than 36 per cent from $71 million in 2021 (5 years).
