Tennis top professionals are usually considered some the highest paid athletes in the world which is a fact if we look at the past three decades. Current three top players in men’s singles Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal and Rodger Federer who have kind of exchanged top three positions over the years are on average making $10 to $15 million a year just from prize money alone. But what about the lower ranked players and their average earnings in a single year ?
Average earnings of a pro tennis player:
If you ignore the top ranked tennis players in both men and women game and look at the average incomes of mid to lower ranked tennis players they are not making enough to say the least.
ATP & WTA arrange the player rankings according to their performances in official tournaments throughout the years have it from #1 to #2000 for singles events. The bottom ranked players can barely clear $1,000 a year with prize money.
While the top 5 on average make over $7 million a year. So why such a big gulf in earnings for top and bottom ranked players ? The reason behind it being tennis as a sport don’t have any central contracts and player solely rely on their performances to earn money which is true for both on the field earnings (prize money) and Sponsorships and Endorsements.
So lets get into details on how much on average a tennis player ranked from 1 to 2000 can make in a year.
| RANK | AVERAGE EARNINGS |
|---|---|
| Top 5 | $7.9 million |
| 5-10 | $3.3 million |
| 11-15 | $2.1 million |
| 16-20 | $1.6 million |
| 21-25 | $1.4 million |
| 26-30 | $1.1 million |
| 30-35 | $1.15 million |
| 36-40 | $1million |
| 41-50 | $992,805 |
| 51-60 | $858,914 |
| 61-70 | $708,794 |
| 71-80 | $639,344 |
| 81-90 | $478,822 |
| 91-100 | $373,679 |
| 101-120 | $351,638 |
| 121-140 | $298,359 |
| 141-160 | $217,381 |
| 161-180 | $157,616 |
| 181-200 | $120,832 |
| 201-233 | $106,215 |
| 234-266 | $88,089 |
| 267-300 | $60,978 |
| 301-350 | $41,671 |
| 351-400 | $30,238 |
| 401-450 | $21,370 |
| 451-500 | $16,955 |
| 501-550 | $12,832 |
| 551-600 | $11,313 (below minimum wage in USA) |
| 601-650 | $8,965 |
| 651-700 | $7,589 |
| 701-750 | $9,554 |
| 751-800 | $5,191 |
| 801-850 | $5,362 |
| 851-900 | $3,753 |
| 901-950 | $3,615 |
| 951-1000 | $3,347 |
| 1000-1100 | $2,726 |
| 1101-1500 | $1,108 |
| 1501-2000 | $828 |
On average top 5 ranked players can clear over $7 million a year. While top 100 ranked players can earn over $300,000 a year. While 1000 + ranked player can only clear around $3000 a year.
Rodger Federer with his over $600 million networth. He accumulated his wealth with career prize money plus big sponsorship deals and endorsement deals.
No. Tennis players can only make money via prize money and sponsorship deals.
$100 to $150 per ATP/WTA tournament and $350 to $500 per grand slam.