Simona Halep hits $40m mark in WTA career-prize money earnings, only behind Serena and Venus Williams

WTA Tour

Shahida Jacobs
August 17, 2022

When Simona Halep won the Canadian Open over the weekend she notched another incredible milestone in her glittering career as she became only the third player to earn $40m in the WTA career-prize money.

It was an excellent weekend for Halep in Toronto as she defeated Beatriz Haddad Maia from Brazil to claim the 24th singles title of her distinguished career, moved back into the top 10 of the WTA Rankings and she also walked away with a $439,700 prize cheque.

The result saw her move to $40,107,097 in total earnings over a 16-year professional tennis career.

The two-time Grand Slam winner finds herself just behind tennis greats Serena Wiliams and Venus Williams in the overall list of top WTA earners.

Halep overtook five-time Grand Slam winner Maria Sharapova, who retired in 2021, earlier this year and she is now “just” over $2,1 million behind Venus in second place while Serena is still well clear as she has over $90m in career-prize money.

The Romanian herself has a comfortable lead over the next active player, Victoria Azarenka, as she is $5,6m ahead of the Belarusian in sixth place.

Petra Kvitova (7), Angelique Kerber (8) and Svetlana Kuznetsova (10) are the other active players on the list.

Top 10 WTA Tour career-prize money earners

1 Serena Williams	United States	$94,588,910
2 Venus Williams	United States	$42,285,378
3 Simona Halep	Romania	$40,107,097
4 Maria Sharapova	Russia	$38,777,962
5 Caroline Wozniacki	Denmark	$35,233,415
6 Victoria Azarenka	Belarus	$34,449,618
7 Petra Kvitova	Czech Republic	$34,193,491
8 Angelique Kerber	Germany	$31,886,468
9 Agnieszka Radwańska	Poland	$27,683,807
10 Svetlana Kuznetsova	Russia	$25,816,890

“I’ve been many years there. But now I feel like it’s a big deal to be back in top 10. I’m really happy with this performance,” said after her win over Haddad Maia on Sunday.

“When I started the year I was not very confident and I set the goal to be, at the end of the year, top 10. And here I am. So it’s very special moment. I will enjoy it. I will give myself credit. I’m just dreaming for more.”

The Romanian’s biggest year to date in terms of earnings came in 2018 when she won $7,409,564 with her French Open crown the biggest title of the campaign while her second best season was in 2019 when she won Wimbledon and earned a total of $6,962,442 for the year.

Those two years are eighth and 10th on the list, which is dominated by Serena Williams as the American great appears five times on the list while Halep is the only other player to feature twice.

Top 10 WTA career-prize money earners in a single season

1 Serena Williams	United States	2013	$12,385,572
2 Ashleigh Barty	Australia	2019	$11,307,587
3 Serena Williams (2)	United States	2015	$10,582,642
4 Angelique Kerber	Germany	2016	$10,136,615
5 Serena Williams (3)	United States	2014	$9,317,298
6 Victoria Azarenka	Belarus	2012	$7,923,920
7 Serena Williams (4)	United States	2016	$7,675,030
8 Simona Halep	Romania	2018	$7,409,564
9 Serena Williams (5)	United States	2012	$7,045,975
10 Simona Halep (2)	Romania	2019	$6,962,442

It was Halep’s second title of the year and she is now fourth on the WTA Tour list of active players with the most singles titles, but she is a long way adrift in the all-time list.

The 30-year-old’s 24th title puts her only behind Serena Williams (73), Venus Williams (49) and Petra Kvitova (29) in terms of active players.

Most singles titles of active players on the WTA Tour

1 Serena Williams	United States	73
2 Venus Williams	United States	49
3 Petra Kvitova	Czech Republic	29
4 Simona Halep	Romania	24
5 Victoria Azarenka	Belarus	21
6 Svetlana Kuznetsova	Russia	18
7 Karolína Pliskova	Czech Republic	16
7 Elina Svitolina	Ukraine	16
9 Angelique Kerber	Germany	14
10 Vera Zvonareva	Russia	12
10 Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova	Russia	12