In 2025, Carlos Alcaraz won the US Open and pocketed a record $5 million. It was the biggest single-tournament payout in tennis history. Meanwhile, Stephen Curry earned $55.7 million just for showing up to the 2024-25 NBA season. He didn’t even have to win a championship.
The average NBA player makes $11.9 million per year. The average NFL player? $5.2 million. But in tennis, only 28 men and 15 women earned at least $2 million in prize money in 2024. The rest? Far less, and that’s before they pay for coaches, travel, and equipment out of their own pockets.
Tennis players are among the most skilled athletes in the world. They compete at the highest level for 11 months a year, travel to different continents every week, and carry their sport’s entire business on their backs. Yet they take home a fraction of what team sport athletes earn.
Why? The answer isn’t about skill or popularity. It’s about economics, revenue sharing, and a broken business model that treats tennis players like independent contractors rather than employees.
The Revenue Split: 12% vs 50%
Tennis Players Get Scraps, Team Sports Get Half
The biggest reason tennis players earn less comes down to one number: revenue share.
In team sports, players negotiate collective bargaining agreements that guarantee them roughly 50% of total league revenue. This is standard across major leagues:
NBA: Players receive 50% of basketball-related income
NFL: Players receive 48.8% of all revenue
MLB: No formal agreement, but players historically get 40-50%
In tennis? Players get somewhere between 12% and 20% of tournament revenue, depending on the event.
US Open (2024):
- Total revenue: $514 million
- Prize money: $75 million
- Player share: 14.6%
Australian Open (2025):
- Estimated revenue: $350 million
- Prize money: $59 million (AUD $96.5M)
- Player share: 17%
Grand Slam organizers argue they reinvest revenue into junior development, smaller tournaments, and tennis infrastructure. That’s partly true. But it doesn’t change the fact that the people doing the actual work (the players) get paid like contractors, not partners.
Compare that to the NBA, where the 2024-25 salary cap is $140.5 million per team. With 30 teams, that’s $4.2 billion going directly to 450 players. And that’s just salaries – it doesn’t include bonuses, endorsements, or performance incentives.
Tennis players aren’t partners in the business. They’re independent workers fighting for prize money.
No Guaranteed Salaries, Only Prize Money
Lose First Round? You Make Almost Nothing
In team sports, your salary is guaranteed. NBA players sign contracts worth millions, and they get paid whether they play well, get injured, or sit on the bench. NFL contracts are less guaranteed, but star players still get massive signing bonuses upfront.
Tennis? You only earn what you win. And if you lose early, you barely cover your expenses.
2025 US Open Prize Money:
- Champion: $5 million
- Runner-up: $2.5 million
- Semifinalist: $1.25 million
- First round loser: $120,000
That $120,000 sounds decent until you realize professional tennis players spend $150,000 to $300,000 per year on:
- Coach salaries ($50,000 to $150,000+)
- Physiotherapist and trainers ($30,000 to $60,000)
- Travel costs (flights, hotels, meals)
- Tournament entry fees
- Equipment, stringing, practice courts
A player ranked 100th in the world might earn $500,000 in prize money over a full season. After expenses? They take home $200,000 to $250,000. Compare that to the 100th-ranked NBA player, who earns $5-10 million guaranteed, with zero business expenses.
And here’s the kicker: if you get injured in tennis, you earn nothing. NBA players? Their contracts keep paying.
The ATP introduced a “guaranteed base earnings” system in 2024:
- Top 100: $300,000 minimum
- Ranks 101-175: $150,000 minimum
- Ranks 176-250: $75,000 minimum
But these guarantees only apply to the top 250 players in the world. Everyone else? Good luck.
Travel Costs and Business Expenses
NBA Players Fly Private on the Team’s Dime, Tennis Players Pay Their Own Way
When an NBA team travels to an away game, the franchise pays for everything: chartered flights, five-star hotels, meals, medical staff, and equipment. Players show up, play, and go home. Zero out-of-pocket costs.
Tennis players are different. They run their own businesses, traveling 30-40 weeks per year to compete in tournaments across six continents. And they pay for everything themselves.
Annual costs for a top 100 tennis player:
- Flights: $50,000 to $80,000
- Hotels: $30,000 to $50,000 (sharing rooms to save money)
- Meals and daily expenses: $20,000 to $30,000
- Coach travel: Additional $30,000+
- Total travel costs: $130,000 to $190,000 per year
That’s before you even step on the court.
Compare that to NFL players, who travel as a team for 8 away games per season, all expenses covered. NBA players? 41 road games, fully paid. Tennis players? 25+ tournaments per year, 100% self-funded.
Even lower-ranked tennis players competing on the Challenger Tour (the minor league of tennis) spend $50,000 to $100,000 annually just to compete, often earning less than they spend.
The ATP and WTA don’t subsidize travel. Grand Slam organizers don’t cover costs. Tennis players are essentially small business owners competing against each other while funding their own operations.
Top-Heavy Prize Distribution
The Rich Get Richer, Everyone Else Struggles
In 2024, Jannik Sinner earned $11.5 million in prize money. That’s nearly five times what the 10th-ranked player, Stefanos Tsitsipas, earned. In women’s tennis, Aryna Sabalenka made more than three times what the 10th-ranked player earned.
This is called “top-heavy distribution,” and it’s a massive problem in tennis. The elite players make millions. Everyone else fights for scraps.
2024 ATP Prize Money (Men):
- Top 10 players collectively: $80.7 million
- That’s an average of $8 million per player
For comparison:
- Players ranked 11-20: Average $2-3 million
- Players ranked 21-50: Average $800,000 to $1.5 million
- Players ranked 51-100: Average $300,000 to $600,000
The WTA is even more top-heavy. In 2024, the top 10 women earned $57.4 million collectively, 41% less than the men despite playing the same Grand Slams.
In the NBA, even bench players make millions. The minimum NBA salary is $1.16 million. The median salary? $6.7 million. That means half the league earns at least $6.7 million, even if they never become stars.
In tennis, the median player (ranked around 100th) earns maybe $500,000 in prize money, and nets $200,000 after expenses. There’s no middle class in tennis. You’re either elite or you’re struggling.
The Real Money Is in Endorsements, Not Prize Money
Why Federer Made $90 Million Without Playing
Here’s the dirty secret of tennis: for the top players, prize money is pocket change. The real money comes from endorsements.
Roger Federer retired in 2022. In 2023, he earned $90 million, entirely from endorsements with brands like Rolex, Uniqlo, Credit Suisse, and Wilson. Novak Djokovic earned $40 million off-court in 2024 while winning 24 Grand Slams. Rafael Nadal? $30 million+ per year from Nike, Kia, and Babolat.
For elite players, endorsements make them rich. For everyone else? They barely exist.
Typical endorsement earnings by ranking:
- Top 5: $10 million to $40 million per year
- Top 10: $5 million to $15 million per year
- Top 20: $1 million to $5 million per year
- Top 50: $200,000 to $1 million per year
- Below 50: Almost nothing
Serena Williams earned $45 million per year from endorsements at her peak, while her prize money was “only” $8-12 million annually. That’s the model for superstars: use tennis to build a brand, then cash in with sponsors.
But this creates a massive inequality. The top 10 players are multimillionaires. Players ranked 50-100? They’re living paycheck to paycheck.
In team sports, even role players get sneaker deals, local sponsorships, and appearance fees. In tennis, if you’re not top 20, brands don’t care.
Injury Means No Income
Get Hurt? You Earn Zero
In the NBA, if you tear your ACL, your $20 million salary keeps paying. In tennis, if you get injured, you earn nothing.
The 2024 season was brutal for this:
Jannik Sinner won the Australian Open in January, then served a three-month suspension from February to April due to a doping settlement. He still earned $11.5 million that year, but only because he played well when healthy.
Neymar (not tennis, but illustrative of guaranteed contracts in team sports) tore his ACL while playing for Al-Hilal and still collected $100 million per year while sitting on the bench.
Tennis players get no such protection. Injury insurance exists, but it’s limited:
ATP Injury Protection (2024):
- Top 100 players: $200,000 if injured and compete in fewer than 9 events
- Ranks 101-175: $100,000
- Ranks 176-250: $50,000
That sounds helpful until you realize top players have annual expenses of $200,000+. So if you’re ranked 80th and get injured for six months, you might get $200,000 in injury protection but you’ve already spent $150,000 on travel and coaches before the injury hit.
NFL players have guaranteed contracts. NBA players have injury clauses. Tennis players? They’re on their own.
Why Team Sports Pay More: The Economics
Collective Bargaining vs. Individual Negotiation
The fundamental difference between tennis and team sports comes down to one concept: collective bargaining.
In team sports:
- Players form unions (NBPA, NFLPA, MLBPA)
- Unions negotiate with leagues for revenue sharing
- Players get 48-50% of total revenue, guaranteed
- Minimum salaries, health insurance, pensions, and benefits are standard
In tennis:
- Players compete as individuals
- No collective bargaining power
- Grand Slams and ATP/WTA tournaments set prize money unilaterally
- Players take what they’re offered or don’t play
Tennis players tried to organize. The Professional Tennis Players Association (PTPA), co-founded by Novak Djokovic, filed an antitrust lawsuit in March 2024 against the sport’s governing bodies, alleging they “cap prize money and limit players’ ability to earn money off the court.”
Twenty top players, including Coco Gauff, Aryna Sabalenka, and Jannik Sinner, sent a letter to Grand Slam organizers in spring 2024 demanding prize money increase “to a more appropriate percentage of tournament revenues.”
So far? Nothing has changed.
The Grand Slams hold all the power. Players can complain, but they can’t strike. If Djokovic boycotts Wimbledon, Wimbledon still happens. If LeBron James and 200 NBA players strike? The season shuts down.
That’s the difference. Team sport athletes have leverage. Tennis players don’t.
The Numbers: Tennis vs NBA vs NFL
How the Pay Gap Actually Looks
Let’s put this in perspective with cold, hard numbers:
Average Earnings (2024-25):
- NBA player: $11.9 million (guaranteed salary)
- NFL player: $5.2 million (mostly guaranteed)
- Top 50 tennis player: $1-3 million (prize money only, before expenses)
- Top 100 tennis player: $300,000 to $800,000 (before expenses)
Median Earnings:
- NBA player: $6.7 million
- NFL player: $860,000
- Tennis player (ranked 100): $200,000 after expenses
Minimum Earnings:
- NBA rookie: $1.16 million (guaranteed)
- NFL rookie: $840,000 (mostly guaranteed)
- Tennis player ranked 200: $75,000 to $150,000 (before expenses)
Top Player Earnings (2024):
- Stephen Curry (NBA): $55.7 million salary + $50M endorsements = $105M
- Carlos Alcaraz (tennis): $16 million prize money + $10M endorsements = $26M
Even the best tennis player in the world earns 75% less than an NBA superstar.
Why This Won’t Change Anytime Soon
Grand Slams Hold All the Cards
Tennis players are fighting for change, but the economics are stacked against them.
Why Grand Slams won’t budge:
- They don’t need to – players have no leverage
- They reinvest profits into the sport (junior programs, smaller tournaments)
- No collective bargaining means no negotiation
- Wimbledon, US Open, French Open, and Australian Open are monopolies – there’s no competing league
The only real threat to the current system is an alternative league. In 2024, the Six Kings Slam in Riyadh offered players record-breaking payouts outside the traditional tour. If Saudi Arabia or another wealthy nation builds a rival tour with guaranteed salaries and higher prize money, the ATP and Grand Slams would be forced to compete.
But until then? Tennis players will keep earning 12-20% of tournament revenue while NBA players take home 50%.
Tennis is an individual sport with a collective revenue problem. Until players organize and demand a bigger slice of the pie, they’ll keep making millions less than their team sport counterparts.
That’s why tennis players make less. And that’s why it’s not changing anytime soon.
