LONDON – The ATP Tour on Thursday announced a record increase of US$37.5 million (S$51.6 million) in prize money to US$217.9 million for the 2023 men’s tennis season.
The overall prize money was for the ATP and Challenger Tours, with ATP Tour players taking home an additional US$18.6 million of on-site prize money from 2023, the ATP said in a statement.
Earlier in 2022, the ATP had announced that purses on the Challenger Tour would receive a significant boost.
“The record increase also includes a significant uplift on the ATP Challenger Tour, which will see on-site prize money grow by 75 per cent, from US$12.1 million to US$21.1 million,” the ATP said.
In June, the men’s governing body said players and tournaments will share profits equally from 2023 as part of its OneVision plan – primarily aimed at boosting revenue from media and TV rights.
On Thursday, it said “a revised bonus pool structure introduced through OneVision, ATP’s strategic plan, is set to deliver bonus pools of US$21.3 million in 2023, a US$9.8 million increase on 2022, to an expanded group of top-performing players”.
The ATP had also announced that its flagship Masters 1000 tournaments in Madrid, Rome and Shanghai would be held over 12 days and with bigger draw sizes from 2023.
“Our players are world-class athletes and it’s our priority to ensure they’re compensated accordingly,” ATP chairman Andrea Gaudenzi said.
“These record increases in 2023 are a strong statement for the ATP Tour and highlights our commitment to raising the bar in tennis.”
The 2023 international season will begin on Dec 29 with the inaugural edition of the United Cup – a new mixed-sex US$15 million tournament featuring teams from 18 nations playing matches across three Australian cities.
At the ATP Finals in Turin, Greece’s Stefanos Tsitsipas battled back from 3-5 down in the third set to eliminate Daniil Medvedev 6-3, 6-7 (11-13), 7-6 (7-1) and set up a showdown on Friday with Andrey Rublev for the Red Group’s other semi-final spot alongside Novak Djokovic.
Meanwhile, Rafael Nadal made sure he avoided matching his worst ever losing sequence with a 7-5, 7-5 victory over Norway’s world No. 4 Casper Ruud, who had already qualified for the semi-finals, on Thursday.
Back-to-back defeats in the Green Group by debutants Taylor Fritz and Felix Auger-Aliassime – who faced off on Thursday with a semi-final place at stake – meant the 22-time Grand Slam champion missed out on the last four.
But the Spaniard at least ended his season without succumbing to a fifth straight loss. REUTERS, AFP
