Newsdeck

Newsdeck

Tennis: Australian Open prize money rises to $36m

Next month's Australian Open will offer Aus$50 million (US$36.25 million) in prize money, with the men's and women's singles champions both netting a cool $3.7 million, organisers said on Wednesday.

The tournament-record purse, up 14 percent on the 2016 edition, also offers players $50,000 even if they lose in the first round.

“It was especially important for us to increase the compensation for players in the early rounds and qualifying, and this year we have made some real gains,” tournament director Craig Tiley said in a statement.

“Our aim is to shift the break-even point for professional players, to ensure that tennis is a viable career option for the best male and female athletes in the world,” he added. 

Prize money for qualifying matches at the year’s first tennis Grand Slam is up 39 percent, and the $50,000 reward for reaching round one is a rise of 30 percent.

By comparison, last year’s US Open offered a total purse of US$46.3 million, while players won £28.1 million (US$34.7 million) at Wimbledon and 32 million euros (US$33.3 million) at the French Open.

bur/th/eb

© 1994-2016 Agence France-Presse

Gallery

Please peer review 3 community comments before your comment can be posted

We would like our readers to start paying for Daily Maverick...

…but we are not going to force you to. Over 10 million users come to us each month for the news. We have not put it behind a paywall because the truth should not be a luxury.

Instead we ask our readers who can afford to contribute, even a small amount each month, to do so.

If you appreciate it and want to see us keep going then please consider contributing whatever you can.

Support Daily Maverick→
Payment options

Become a Maverick Insider

This could have been a paywall

On another site this would have been a paywall. Maverick Insider keeps our content free for all.

Become an Insider

Every seed of hope will one day sprout.

South African citizens throughout the country are standing up for our human rights. Stay informed, connected and inspired by our weekly FREE Maverick Citizen newsletter.