The US Tennis Association (USTA), organizers of the US Open grand slam, has announced the largest prize purse in tennis history, with a total $90 million to be distributed to players for the 2025 edition.
A record $5 million is on offer for the tournament’s men’s and women’s singles champions, while the singles runners-up will get $2.5 million each, representing a 39% increase on last year’s event. Semifinalists will earn $1.26 million, a 26% rise.
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At the other end, players who are knocked out in the first round will still each get $110,000 – a 10% increase on last year.
The total $90 million, meanwhile, represents a 20% increase on last year’s prize purse, which stood at $75 million and comes as in the wake of player’s lobbying the four major Grand Slams -the Australia Open, French open, Wimbledon, and the US Open – for a greater share of their growing revenues.
Earlier this year, the top 20 men’s and women’s players sent a letter to the four Grand Slams seeking more prize money and a greater say in “decisions that directly impact us.”
The $90 million includes $5 million in supporting costs, such as travel and expenses, for players in the main draw.
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By GlobalDataIn a statement, tournament organizers have said: “The US Open has made a deliberate and concerted effort to ensure double-digit percentage increases from 2024 in all rounds of all events for all players, while at the same time significantly increasing the percentage of prize money for athletes playing deep into the singles draws.”
By comparison, for the Wimbledon Championships in London, UK, which ended last month, prize money increased about 7% to about $73 million, with the singles champions receiving $4 million each.
The French Open, meanwhile, also offered a record prize purse earlier this year, worth about $63.7 million, a 5.21% increase from last year, while the singles champions prize increased to $2.9 million.
This year’s US Open, running from August 24 to September 7, is set to feature a new format for its mixed doubles championship, meanwhile, with 16 teams competing for a prize of $1 million.
The draw includes several high-profile pairings, including Carlos Alcaraz and Emma Raducanu, Jannik Sinner with Emma Navarro, Iga Swiatek with Casper Rudd, and Novak Djokovic with Danilovic.
As tennis has grown in recent years, so too has the US Open, which in 2024 attracted a record attendance of over one million fans for the first time.
The 1,048,669 total over three weeks marks an 8% increase over 2023, itself a record-breaking year, while attendance for the two weeks of 2024’s main draw reached a new high of 832,640.
This made the 2024 championships at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center the first to surpass the seven-figure mark.
In terms of current media rights agreements covering the New York event, sports broadcasting heavyweight ESPN covers the tournament across the US, Canada, Latin America, and the Caribbean, via a long-term contract running through the 2037 edition, starting next year (this domestic element represents the expansion part of this latest deal).
Other notable broadcasters set to cover this year's championships include heavyweight Sky (UK, Italy, Germany), Warner Bros. Discovery across Europe as a whole, BeIN Sports across the Middle East and North Africa, and Eclat in 15 Asian territories.
The prize money announcement also comes after the USTA announced a major $800 million investment into New York City’s Billie Jean King National Tennis Center hub, which includes a “top-to-bottom” refurbishment of the iconic Arthur Ashe Stadium.
The venue is set to be refurbished in stages so as not to disturb the 2025 and 2026 stagings of the iconic event, with construction set for completion for the start of the 2027 US Open.
