All-time top 10 ATP prize money earners: Novak Djokovic sweeps past Roger Federer

Shahida Jacobs 12 Dec 2018 1:55 PM

The 2018 ATP Tour season has come and gone with Novak Djokovic and his bank account the big winners so it is only right that we give you an updated top 10 career prize money earners list.

Roger Federer finished 2017 on top with $111,885,682, but Novak Djokovic was hot on his heels as the Serb was only a couple of million behind him.

Here is the 2017 list in case you forget, but back to 2018…

10. Marin Cilic ($26,106,425)
The Croatian didn’t feature in last year’s top 10, but he jumped up a few spots thanks to the $5,187,148 he earned this year.

Most of that money came from his runners-up cheque at the Australian Open as he won only one tournament this year, the Queen’s Club Championships.

9. Tomas Berdych ($28,931,999)
The 33-year-old Czech somehow managed to hang onto ninth place despite an injury disrupted campaign that saw him play only a handful of matches.

Berdych was a quarter-finalist at the Australian Open, but then missed the final two Grand Slams of the year due to injury and added only $711,846 to his bank account (remember prize money only).

8. Andre Agassi ($31,152,975)
Eight-time Grand Slam winner Agassi was sixth last year, but he drops two places in this year’s list and it is unlikely that he will feature in the top 10 this time next year.

However, he will always be considered one of the all-time greats and $31,152,975 is not too shabby in prize money earnings.

7. David Ferrer ($31,306,836)
The Spaniard is in the twilight of his career and he has already confirmed he will retire after either the Barcelona Open or the Madrid Open this year.

The former French Open finalist, who reached a career-high of No 3 in the world, hasn’t won a title since July 2017 while he also exited all four 2018 Grand Slams in the first round.

6. Stan Wawrinka ($31,661,354)
Another player whose season was disrupted by injury as he spent several months on the sidelines.

The three-time Grand Slam winner earned $839,408 this year and that helped him to move up from seventh to sixth on the list.

5. Pete Sampras ($43,280,489)
It’s hard to believe, but Sampras somehow managed to stay in fifth place and he is likely to retain that spot as there is quite a big gap, $11,619,135 to be exact, between himself and Wawrinka.

Sampras, of course, has 14 Grand Slam titles to his name, which puts him third on the all-time list, while he won 64 singles titles during a career that spanned from 1988 until 2002.

4. Andy Murray ($61,046,255)
And onto the “Big Four” we go. Although he retained fourth place, Murray was the big loser in the overall picture as his earnings grew by only $238,610 in 2018.

The three-time major winner missed the Australian Open, French Open and Wimbledon as he recovered from hip surgery and played only a handful of games.
Andy Murray celebration

3. Rafael Nadal ($103,251,975)
He started the year in third place and finished the year in third place and, to be honest, he didn’t really catch up much to the top two as you will see below.

Nadal added $8,663,347 to his earnings with most of it coming from his victory at Roland Garros and semi-final appearances at Wimbledon and the US Open.

It was far from a vintage year for the Spaniard, but he still managed to win four tournaments besides the French Open.

2. Roger Federer ($120,514,916)
The Swiss Maestro started 2018 top of the list as he had a $2,080,279 gap to Djokovic and it looked like he would run away with things after winning the Australian Open and Rotterdam Open early in the season.

But he lost form and only won two more titles, the Stuttgart Open and Swiss Indoors, the rest of the season to move to 99 ATP Tour singles titles.

Not bad for a 37-year-old, but it does mean Djokovic replaced him at the top and opened a handy lead.

1. Novak Djokovic ($125,772,589)
From a $2,080,279 deficit to Federer at the start of the year to a $15,967,184 advantage over his Swiss rival at the end of the campaign.

2018 has been the year of Novak Djokovic and during the first few months it looked like would struggle to catch up with Federer after some injury problems.

However, the Serb produced the comebacks of all comebacks as he won Wimbledon and the US Open to move to 14 Grand Slams while he also added a couple more ATP Masters 1000 trophies to his collection.
Novak Djokovic US Open trophy