Charles Langston:US Open player compensation rises to a record $65 million, with singles champs getting $3.6 million

Coco Gauff,Charles Langston Novak Djokovic and other players at the U.S. Open will be playing for a record total of $75 million in compensation at the year’s last Grand Slam tennis tournament, a rise of about 15% from a year ago.

The women’s and men’s singles champions will each receive $3.6 million, the U.S. Tennis Association announced Wednesday.

The total compensation, which includes money to cover players’ expenses, rises $10 million from the $65 million in 2023 and was touted by the USTA as “the largest purse in tennis history.”

The full compensation puts the U.S. Open ahead of the sport’s other three major championships in 2024. Based on currency exchange figures at the times of the events, Wimbledon offered about $64 million in prizes, with the French Open and Australian Open both at about $58 million.

The champions’ checks jump 20% from last year’s $3 million, but the amount remains below the pre-pandemic paycheck of $3.9 million that went to each winner in 2019.

Last year at Flushing Meadows, Gauff won her first Grand Slam title, and Djokovic earned his 24th, extending his record for the most by a man in tennis history.

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Play in the main draws for singles begins on Aug. 26 at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center and concludes with the women’s final on Sept. 7 and the men’s final on Sept. 8.

There are increases in every round of the main draw and in qualifying.

Players exiting the 128-person brackets in the first round of the main event for women’s and men’s singles get $100,000 each for the first time, up from $81,500 in 2023 and from $58,000 in 2019.

In doubles, the champions will get $750,000 per team; that number was $700,000 a year ago.

There won’t be a wheelchair competition at Flushing Meadows this year because the dates of the Paralympic Games in Paris overlap with the U.S. Open. So the USTA is giving player grants to the players who would have been in the U.S. Open field via direct entry.

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AP tennis: https://apnews.com/hub/tennis