By Frank Dalleres
The Australian Open may be the first Grand Slam on the calendar, but it comes last of the four tennis majors for prize money.
The men’s and women’s singles champions in Melbourne this weekend stand to receive AUD $2.98m, which equates to $2.08m or £1.67m at current exchange rates.
That trails the £2m ($2.5m) Wimbledon organisers paid to Novak Djokovic and Elena Rybakina last year and the €2.2m ($2.29m/£1.9m) awarded to Rafael Nadal and Iga Swiatek at the French Open.
The most lucrative of the tennis Grand Slams is the US Open, which paid $2.6m (£2.2m) to singles champions Carlos Alcaraz and Swiatek.
But the event which awards the most prize money to its winner is the ATP Finals, the end-of-year tournament for the eight best-performing men of the season.
Djokovic scooped the maximum possible payout last year of $4.74m (£4.09m) for a player who won the title without losing a match.
The equivalent event on the women’s circuit, the WTA Finals, offered a maximum $1.68m (£1.45m). Winner Caroline Garcia took home $1.57m (£1.36m).
How Australian Open prize money has changed
The total prize money to be distributed at the 2023 Australian Open is a record AUD $76.5m (£42.8m).
That is just over three per cent more than the sum on offer last year in Melbourne and a huge increase on the cash on offer in recent years.
Total prize money has more than doubled since 2014 and more than trebled since 2011.
However, fluctuations in foreign exchange rates mean that the payouts have fallen slightly in US dollar terms year-on-year.
Australian Open prize money 2023: Full breakdown for singles competitions
Winner: $2,975,000 / $2,055,072 / $1,664,543
Runner-up: $1,625,000 / $1,122,519 / $909,188
Semi-final: $925,000 / $638,773 / $517,538
Quarter-final: $555,250 / $383,437 / $310,509
Round 4: $338,250 / $157,397 / $189,158
Round 3: $227,925 / $153,095 / $127,470
Round 2: $158,850 / $109,694 / $88,839
Round 1: $106,250 / $73,371 / $59,433
The post Australian Open prize money 2023: How much can tennis players win in Melbourne this weekend and how does it compare to other Grand Slam tournaments? appeared first on CityAM.
