The ATP and the millions it distributed in 2022: who was the tennis player who earned the most

Carlos Alcaraz he was the “player” of the season on the men’s tennis circuit. The 19-year-old Spaniard was one of those who won the most singles titles (5, the same number of Novak Djokovic, including his first Grand Slam, in New York) and rose to number one in the world, becoming the youngest in history to reach that position. And two weeks after the end of the 2022 competition – which brought down the curtain with the consecration of the Serbian at the ATP Finals in Turin – this year he added another record to his personal best.

It is that after the distribution of the ATP bonus, the Murciano has become the player who has earned the most money for his performances on the pitch, surpassing Djokovic. And he also became the first outside the Big 4 –Roger Federer, Rafael Nadalthe Serbian and Andy Murray– reach 10 million prize money in the same season.

Alcaraz was crowned this year at the ATP 500 in Rio de Janeiro and Barcelona, ​​​​the Masters 1000 in Miami and Madrid and at the US Open. He was also a finalist in Hamburg and Umag. Thanks to these and other performances – he reached, for example, the third round in the Australian Opento the rooms in Roland Garros already eighth Wimbledon– won $7,655,130 in prize money.

That purse has been augmented with the ATP bonus, which is distributed each year to the top 12 players in the league table who have fulfilled their commitment to play the mandatory Masters 1000.

As of 2022, there have been seven tournaments with that condition: Montecarlo it is the only optional of that group; while Shanghai it was canceled for the third consecutive year due to the pandemic COVID-19. Eight of the top 12 in the standings met the criteria of the association that governs the circuit and received the bonus, some fully, others partially.

One of those eight was Alcaraz, only the one from Rome, due to a foot-injury, which thus reached $10,102,330 in prize money. Djokovic, who due to his refusal to be vaccinated against the coronavirus was only able to play Montecarlo, MadridRome and Paris, did not increase his cash crop and finished second, with 9,934,582. And third was Nadal, who played five Masters 1000 (Indian WellsMadrid, Rome, cincinnati Y Paris) and bagged 9,368,326.

The most successful Argentine was diego schwartzmann, who placed 21st on that list with $2,004,231. The small25th in the standings, he was a finalist in Buenos Aires Y Rio de Janeiro and had her best performance in a major event at Roland Garros, where she reached the round of 16.

Alcaraz, close to legends

The prize money that Alcaraz has collected in this 2022 has allowed him to add his name to a small group, which already included Federer, Nadal, Djokovic and Murray, the Fantastic Four which dominated the circuit for almost two decades and marked an era. Is that the Murciano has become the only player out of those four who have won at least 10 million in the same season.

The list of top-earning tennis players in a single season is led by Djokovic, who in 2015 earned a record 21,146,145. In that year, the best of his career, the Serbian won 11 titles: three Grand Slams (Australia, Wimbledon and US Open), the Masters 1000 in Indian Wells, Miami, Montecarlo, Rome, Shanghai and Paris, the ATP 500 of Beijing and the Masters Tournament. He finished with a record of 82 wins and only six losses. She and she remained at the top of the league table throughout the year, a position she held since July 2014.

The second with the best harvest is Murray, who caught 16,349,701 in 2016, when he was champion of Wimbledon and the ATP Finals, won the Rome, Shanghai and Paris Masters and the Queen’s, Beijing and Vienna titles (he was also gold at the Rio Olympics, tournament that did not distribute cash prizes); and played the finals in Australia, Roland Garros, Madrid and cincinnati.

Nadal took a slightly lower profit than the Scotsman in 2019, a year that has been far from the best of his career, if we talk about titles. In that season, the Spaniard was crowned at the French and American Grand Slams, as well as the Rome and Montreal Masters; and he played the final in Melbourne. Thus, he raised $16,349,586.

Federer appears only tenth on that list (positions 4 through 9 are spread out). Freight Y Raf, with other big-yield campaigns), with a $13,054,856 harvest in 2017. The Swiss made a successful return to court that year, after missing the second half of 2016 with a left knee injury. He won the Australian Open and Wimbledon, the Indian Wells Masters, You love me and Shanghai and the tournaments in Halle and Basel. And, after starting 17th in the standings, he finished second, behind Nadal.

Only the four of them had reached – and exceeded – the 10 million dollar mark in one year. Until the Alcaraz campaign in 2022. It is true that tournaments tend to increase prizes year after year and that today they are handing out much larger purses than those that were at stake in the heyday years of Federer and Nadal. But the stats — which are cold numbers and sometimes don’t account for these changes in conditions — place Carlitos on the level of tennis’ living legends. Is it a harbinger of things to come?