Tennis News: Prize money in 2022: Iga Swiatek tops the list on women's side, while Carlos Alcaraz passes $10m milestone

    The ATP world number one, Carlos Alcaraz, has scripted history as the first teenager to acquire $10 million or more in prize money in one season at the age of 19

    Carlos Alcaraz and Iga Swiatek top the money list for 2022. Carlos Alcaraz and Iga Swiatek top the money list for 2022.

    The players with the highest year-end prize money are based on the ATP and WTA rankings. So Alcaraz and women's number one Iga Swiatek topped both lists. 

    They even made history and left a massive impact on the tennis fraternity. Besides being the first teenager to make $10 million or more, 19-year-old Alcaraz became the first man besides Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic, and Andy Murray to earn as much within a season. 

    Before Alcaraz, the youngest player to have secured more than that was 23-year-old Ashleigh Barty in 2019. Alcaraz is fifth behind tennis' most outstanding, with Murray, who has done it once, Roger Federer (twice), Rafael Nadal (four times), and Novak Djokovic (eight times).

    <blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Carlos Alcaraz got $2.6 million in prize money for winning the <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/USOpen2022?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#USOpen2022</a>, pushing his 2022 on-court earnings to $7.4 million—$700,000 ahead of second-place Rafael Nadal. <a href="https://t.co/oqUP6rR00l">https://t.co/oqUP6rR00l</a></p>&mdash; Sportico (@Sportico) <a href="https://twitter.com/Sportico/status/1569327316026945538?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 12, 2022</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

    In addition, no other player has earned $20 million in a single season. Meanwhile, Iga Swiatek's total prize money for 2022 is the fifth-highest amount in a single season in WTA history. 

    Swiatek secured more money than Spaniard legend Nadal in 2022 and was at a comparable deficit against Alcaraz and Djokovic. The Serbian thrashed Casper Ruud in straight sets to win the ATP Finals in Turin, Italy, which resulted in a payday of $ 4.74 million, the highest in tennis history. 

    Swiatek earned $59,000 less than Djokovic, who snapped up $9.88 million. This is impressive, considering the pay gap in most tennis events. Although the four major tournaments have paid equal salaries to men and women since 2007, the deficit is still huge in the remaining big-ticket competitions. 

    The total prize money secured from all eight ATP Masters 1000 tournaments in 2022 equalled $59 million, while players only earned $35.9 million for the same number of WTA 1000 events.

    Swiatek's record in 2022 just proved how efficient she was on the women's tour.

    Top 10 players with the highest prize money in ATP in 2022

    Carlos Alcaraz - $10,102,330

    Novak Djokovic - $9,934,582

    Rafael Nadal - $9,368,326

    Casper Ruud - $8,126,816

    Stefanos Tsitsipas - $6,614,416

    Felix Auger-Aliassime - $4,801,292

    Andrey Rublev - $4,666,954

    Taylor Fritz - $4,570,481

    Daniil Medvedev - $4,178,524

    Hubert Hurkacz - $3,764,164

    Top 10 players with the highest prize money in WTA in 2022

    Iga Swiatek - $9,875,525

    Ons Jabeur- $4,997,069

    Caroline Garcia - $3,729,317

    Elena Rybakina - $3,613,440

    Jessica Pegula - $3,611,716

    Coco Gauff - $3,051,953

    Maria Sakkari - $2,481,419

    Aryna Sabalenka - $2,461,320

    Ashleigh Barty - $2,289,320

    Simona Halep -$2,253,197

    Top five highest prize money totals of all time in ATP history

    Novak Djokovic (2015) - $21,646,145

    Andy Murray (2016) - $16,349,701

    Rafael Nadal (2019) - $16,349,586

    Novak Djokovic (2018) - $15,967,184

    Rafael Nadal (2017) - $15,864,000

    Top five highest prize money totals of all time in WTA history

    Serena Williams (2013) - $12,385,572

    Ashleigh Barty (2019) - $11,307,587

    Serena Williams (2015) - $10,582,642

    Angelique Kerber (2016) - $10,136,615

    Iga Swiatek (2022) - $9,875,525