Miami, FL
Ahhh, life is good for the winning professional tennis player. The bragging rights, designer clothes, fancy racquets, and the glory and adoration from legions of fans; but it is especially sweet for the professional tennis player who wins a Grand Slam. These championships are the The Holly Grail of tennis, where even a one time win can pretty much set you up nice financially for years and years and years.
No wonder so many parents are signing up their little Johnny's and JoAnn's at such a young age for lessons. After all Serena Williams did win her first U.S. Open at age 17.
But we digress. Back to the "dolla dolla" bills. The total prize money for the 2019 French Open is nearly 48 million dollars-that's an 8% increase over last year's pot. Earlier this year The French Tennis Federation announced the increased tournament prize fund with the goal of narrowing the gap between pay for tournament winners and those defeated in earlier rounds.
What does that mean? Well, this year the champions At Roland Garros can expect to be rewarded quite well. The winners of the men and women’s singles titles will each earn $2,578,000— a 4.55% increase from last year.
The runner-ups will still see a big financial payoff $1,322,000. Semifinalists rake in $661,0000, while quarterfinalists net $465,000. Players who make it to the round of 16 come away with $272,000. And even those knocked out in the third, second and first rounds will get a payday that is equivalent to what it takes most people to make in a year-- $160,000, $97,000 46,000 $51,000 respectively.
Not bad for a couple week's worth of work.
Now the most important question.
Can we hold a million?