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Carlos Alcaraz and John Rahm have renewed the elite of sports in Spain. Their sporting successes in world-class competitions such as Wimbledon and the Augusta Masters will not only allow them to swell their showcases, but also amass fortunes that are still far from reaching their ceiling. The triumph of the Murcian tennis player in London allowed him to pocket 2.7 million pounds (3.2 million euros), while the victory of the Basque golfer in Georgia (United States), brought him an income of 3.2 million dollars (2.9 million euros ). Two similar million-dollar rewards for two of the greatest talents in Spanish sports today, called to both have significant weight in their respective sports. But what individual sport earns the most money?
Carlos Alcaraz vs. football and F1: average audience of 723,000 spectators in its 15 best matches
Alvaro Cartero
At just 20 years old and without counting other income such as individual sponsorships, Alcaraz has already managed to amass tournament prizes a patrimony of 19.6 million dollars (17.7 million euros), according to official data from the ATP. He surpasses veterans like Roberto Bautista, who at 35 years old, has earned 17.5 million dollars (15.8 million euros) throughout his career, or Pablo Carreño, who has earned 15.2 million dollars ( 13.7 million euros) with 32 years. Among Spaniards, the current number 1 in the ATP ranking is only surpassed by Rafael Nadal, who has earned 134.6 million dollars (121.8 million euros) throughout his successful and long career. He prize money The group of the top-10 active Spanish tennis players rises to 214.4 million dollars (194.5 million euros).
No one doubts that, if he maintains this trajectory, Alcaraz could become the Spanish tennis player who has entered the most in the history of the racket. Not only because of the titles that he can potentially get, but also because of the strong increase that the prize money on the professional circuit. Only in 2023, the ATP will distribute 217.9 million dollars (196.8 million euros), 20.7% more in economic prizes for tennis players in 2023. They will be 37.5 million dollars (33.8 million euros) more than in the current season. The main tournaments that take place in Spain were along the same lines: the Mutua Madrid Open increased its prize money 17.2%, up to 15.4 million euros; while the Barcelona Open Banc Sabadell raised it by 2.3%, up to 2.7 million euros.
With regard to women, the best ten active Spanish tennis players in the WTA ranking accumulate a combined turnover of 15.6 million dollars (14.1 million euros). This is not explained by a different economic distribution by sex, since most tournaments distribute the same amount for men and women, but rather by the lack of sporting successes. Paula Badosa, the best classified, leads the list, with 5.8 million dollars (5.3 million euros). Of course, she is not the Spanish tennis player who accumulates the highest billing due to sporting merits: Garbiñe Muguruza, who has decided to take a sabbatical year, has won 24.8 million dollars (22.4 million euros) throughout his career.
The Saudi ‘takeover’ in golf
The golf elite, for their part, does not have much to envy to the best tennis players in the world. Jon Rahm himself, for example, has entered 51.3 million dollars (46.3 million euros) since he entered the professional circuit in 2016, according to official data from the PGA Tour. The triumph in Augusta, his second major tournament after the 2021 United States Open, has raised the prize to almost 16.3 million dollars (14.7 million euros). prize money raised throughout the 2022-23 season, the most profitable of his career. In 2020-21, the Basque golfer had earned 7.7 million dollars (6.9 million euros).
His record, at the age of 29, is beginning to approach that of the most successful active Spanish golfer, Sergio García, who at 43 is estimated to have has earned about 80 million dollars (72.2 million euros). The Valencian was one of the golfers who, in 2022, decided to participate in the first LIV Golf test and then sue the PGA Tour for monopoly.
The Spanish golfer Jon Rahm raises the champion’s trophy after winning the Augusta Masters (United States). PHOTO: EFE / John G Mabanglo
Golfers saw an opportunity to increase their income in the Saudi circuit, since it announced a distribution of 25 million euros in prizes in its first seven stops, more than the main event of the PGA, The Players, which remained at 20 million dollars (18 million euros). In fact, Eugenio López-Chacarra managed to bag the biggest prize that a Spaniard has won in a golf tournament last year: 4 million dollars (3.6 million euros) plus a bonus of 750,000 dollars (677,000 euros) for also winning the team classification as a member of Fireballs GC.
The PGA Tour tried to shield its hegemony by raising the prize money of up to 51 million euros for the seven tests planned in 2023, which means around 8 million dollars (7.2 million euros) per event. The economic counterproposal to the players, to maintain their exclusivity, had an even stronger response from the Public Investment Fund (PIF), the sovereign wealth fund of Saudi Arabia, which chose to launch a ‘takeover bid’ to absorb the PGA Tour and the European Tour and merge both circuits with LIV Golf. The Saudi Public Investment Fund will invest 1,000 million dollars (903.4 million euros) in the new company after having disbursed around 1,500 million dollars in the LIV Golf editions of 2022 and 2023.
Qatar bets on paddle tennis
An almost identical operation followed, in paddle tennis, Qatar Sports Investment (QSI), which bought Damm the majority shareholding of the World Padel Tour to merge this circuit with the one that the Qatari sovereign fund launched in 2022, Premier Padel. This second circuit offered prizes of up to 525,000 euros in top-class tournaments. A figure that forced the WPT owners to raise their prizes for 2022: up to 500,000 euros went to the World Masters Final, the old Masters Final, and 600,000 euros to the Masters, which were renamed Big.
The irruption of a second professional circuit led to the best players being able to more than double their income. The five best couples in the world in 2022 pocketed, together, €1.3 million: 715,000 from Premier Padel tournaments and 664,000 from WPT events. The couple formed by Juan Lebrón and Alejandro Galán, who last year lifted two of the four Premier Padel Majors and two other lesser category tournaments, as well as a dozen WPT trophies, pocketed 350,000 euros, more than half of which, 193,000 euros, from the events promoted by QSI.
they follow closely Franco Stupaczuk and Pablo Lima, with 341,000 euros; or the couple formed by Fede Chingotto and Juan Tello, which raised more than 285,000 euros. These are figures that corroborate that paddle tennis is still an incipient sport, as far as professionalization is concerned, but that it is beginning to attract the interest of large investors willing to significantly raise the prizes. This explains the interest of the players to play other tournaments beyond the WPT.
Juan Lebron and Alejandro Galan, during the Premier Padel Italian Major last July. PHOTO: EFE / EPA / ALESSANDRO DI MEO
Another racket star, Carolina Marín, also makes money thanks to badminton. Since her debut, the Olympic gold winner in Rio 2016, three-time world champion and six-time European champion, has entered 1.1 million dollars (1 million euros). The tournaments you participate in have a budget millionaire. BWF World Tour distributes figures that range from $210,000 (189,000 euros) for level 5 tournaments to $2 million (1.8 million euros) for level 1 tournaments. This year, for example, Marín has entered more than 109,000 dollars (98.4 million euros) for his participation in nine tournaments on the circuit.
The woman from Huelva suffers from the lack of visibility that badminton has in Spain. One of her rivals, the Indian Sindhu Pusarla, has won less in prizes, 927,000 dollars (837,000 euros), but has managed to position herself as one of the highest paid athletes in the world with a turnover of 28.3 million dollars (25.5 million euros) between 2018 and 2022 through the commercial sponsorship of brands such as Bridgestone, Gatorade, Nokia, Panasonic or Reckitt Benckiser. The gender gap does not affect the prize moneybut yes to the sponsors.
*Article originally published in 2playbook.com.
