Carlos Alcaraz gets a massive payday and takes on Jannik Sinner

Tennis money can be weird. If Carlos Alcaraz wins a tournament; he wins a certain amount of money. Easy enough. But if he does well in tournaments without actually winning them, he can still earn year-end bonus money for being good but not great. That’s weird, right?

For instance, while Novak Djokovic is out there winning nearly every Grand Slam event ever, he doesn’t get the same kind of bonus money as Carlos Alcaraz because Djokovic won the tournaments. Still, the way the ATP has set up its bonus pool is very smart because it awards players for consistent performance and gives them extra motivation for future seasons. If they continue to do well, they will get paid.

In 2023, Alcaraz was given the most amount of bonus money at a healthy $4,443,073. This outpaced the player who received the second-most from the bonus pool, Daniil Medvedev, by over $2 million. Medvedev, the third ranked player on the ATP tour, received $2,308,344.

It is good to be Carlos Alcaraz right now

Djokovic won the most amount of prize money this year (that is what happens, kids, when you win three Grand Slams and the ATP Finals) at nearly $16 million. But partly due to the bonus money being awarded, Alcaraz, Medvedev, and Jannik Sinner also passed the $10 million mark in earnings. This is the first time in the history of tennis that four players earned $10 million or more in the course of one calendar year. That’s good living.

Speaking of Jannik Sinner, the current ATP No. 4 will play Carlos Alcaraz in an exhibition on Friday. The match is expected to be played at JC Ferrero Academy. This is more like a glorified practice as both players were already in Spain preparing for the start of the 2024 tennis season which begins in full the week after next.

Alcaraz’s next event will be playing Djokovic in another exhibition in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia on December 26 or 27. The event is being called the Riadh Season Tennis Cup and will also feature Aryna Sabalenka and Ons Jabeur facing off against each other. Carlos Alcaraz and Novak Djokovic are both expected to earn at least $1 million for participating in the exhibition.

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