The 2022 WTA season It’s not over yet: the best eight tennis players of the year are in Fort Worth, Texas, with the WTA Finals in dispute. However, no one has any doubts about who was the great woman of the year in this sport: the Polish Every Swiatek dominates the world ranking since Ashleigh Barty’s retirement at the beginning of 2022 and had overwhelming moments in this season in which she has already won the Grand Slams at Roland Garros and the US Openthe WTA 1000 in Doha, Miami, Rome and Indian Wells and two other tournaments.
In Texas, Swiatek is currently maintaining his great form, having been runner-up of the WTA 500 of Ostrava and winner of the WTA 500 of San Diego in the only two tournaments he played in October. She debuted 6-2, 6-3 against Daria Kasatkina and conceded 6-3, 6-2 to Caroline Garcia.
These two victories already assure the 21-year-old Pole a $330,000 check in Texas, for participation and two wins, but Iga is a candidate to win much more: in case of being the undefeated champion (needs to win three more matches) will receive $1,680,000a huge figure that would add up to the millions he has earned during a historic 2022.
All aboard the Swiatek Express ????@iga_swiatek drops just ???? games across her first two matches this week!#WTAFinals pic.twitter.com/o9F1aFiePu
— wta (@WTA) November 3, 2022
More | WTA Finals Fort Worth 2022: matches, results, positions, how and where to watch the tournament that brings together the eight best tennis players in the world
For now Swiatek earned $9,735,000 this season, counting exclusively the money received from tournament prizes (which players do not pocket 100% due to the existence of taxes). That figure is the highest of any tennis player in the year, regardless of gender. Something really important, taking into account the disparity in prizes that still exist between the women’s circuit and the men’s circuit: for example, while the WTA Finals hand out five million dollars, the ATP Finals hand out 14.7 million dollars total.
The male tennis player who accumulated the most money in 2022 is currently Carlos Alcaraz, number 1 in the world and last champion of the US Open: the Spaniard adds 7.6 million dollars to Thursday, November 3, after reaching the quarterfinals of the Paris Masters 1000. Alcaraz, in case of being champion in Paris and then becoming undefeated in the ATP Finals, would be just over 10 million and a half dollars in prize money of 2022. Swiatek, if she is the undefeated champion in Texas, will exceed the line of 11 million.
That the prize money of the most successful tennis player of a season exceeds that of the best man of the year is something totally atypical: in the 21st century it only happened in the 2003 seasonwhen Justine Henin won $4,466,000 after winning eight tournaments, including Roland Garros and the US Open, while Roger Federer was at four million after winning seven tournaments, including Wimbledon and the ATP Finals.
The irregularity that the great protagonists of the male circuit had (and Novak Djokovic’s absences, as well as Rafael Nadal’s injuries) had an impact on this, it’s true: in 2013 Serena Williams pocketed more than 12 million dollars and in 2019 Ashleigh Barty earned more than 11 million, but they were dwarfed by the 14.5 and 16.3 million, in both cases, of Rafael Nadal.
