By The 2022 U.S. Open tennis tournament has officially begun.
The tournament kicked off Monday featuring many of the sport’s top stars, such as Rafael Nadal, Naomi Osaka and Serena Williams, who is likely playing in her last U.S. Open after announcing she will soon retire.
Along with those legends, the U.S. Open is set to distribute a record-setting total prize of $60.1 million, up nearly 5% compared to 2021’s $57.5 million total prize.
The payout increase has “a goal of increasing prize money in the earlier rounds of the main draw, as well as the .U.S Open Qualifying Tournament Prize money,” a tournament representative wrote to MarketWatch. “As a result, main-draw payouts are now set at $80,000 for the first round and $121,000 for the second round, an 85% and 57% increase since 2016, respectively.”
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The tournament in Flushing Meadows, N.Y., pays both the men and women athletes equally, and has done so since 1973 when winners John Newcombe and Margaret Court each received $25,000. The other tennis majors — the French Open, Australian Open and Wimbledon — did not follow suit until the 2000s.
Here are the total prize-money allocations for the winner and other finishers at the U.S. Open:
Champion: $2,600,000
Finalist: $1,300,000
Semi-finalist: $705,000
Quarter-finalist: $445,000
Fourth Round: $278,000
Third Round: $188,000
Second Round: $121,000
First Round: $80,000
Another popular part of the U.S. Open is the doubles tournament for both the men and women. Here are the money allocations for the winners and finishers of the doubles tournament (amount is for each team).
Champions: $688,000
Finalists: $344,000
Semi-finalists: $172,000
Quarter-finalists: $97,500
Third Round: $56,400
Second Round: $35,800
First Round: $21,300
The U.S. Open begins Monday, Aug. 29, and can be watched on ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNews, ESPN+ and the Tennis Channel.
