The USTA announced Wednesday that U.S. Open player compensation will increase 20% in 2025 to reach a total of $90 million, the highest purse in tennis history.
The prize money bump is greater for those who advance later into the tournament. The men’s and women’s singles champions will win $5 million each (up 39% from 2024), and the runners-up will make $2.5 million (+39%); losers in the semifinals will take home $1.26 million (+26%).
On the flip side, players who lose in the first round of the singles draw will earn $110,000, up just 10% from last year, and the total purse for the men’s and women’s qualifying tournaments will increase to $8 million, also up just 10%.
In a press release, the USTA wrote that the significantly larger increase in prize money for top players in 2025 “follows years of a strategic focus on redistribution to the early rounds and qualifying tournament to provide meaningful payouts to all players.”
Indeed, prize money for the losers in the qualifying rounds was boosted by 66% between 2019 and 2021, and additional support for all players—in the form of travel stipends, lodging and racket stringing—was introduced in 2023. Additionally, when COVID-19 prevented fans from attending the grounds in 2020, the USTA touted the fact that prize money declined by less than 10% despite revenues being slashed in half.
In order to make those adjustments work financially, the singles winner’s prize was reduced from $3.85 million in 2019 to $2.5 million in 2021, a change that the tournament has been gradually undoing over the past several years.
The winner’s prizes for the men’s and women’s doubles draws will also jump from $750,000 in 2024 to $1 million this year. That is the same top cash reward as the new mixed doubles championship, which will feature star singles players in a new format taking place the week before the main draw starts.
Overall, the men’s and women’s doubles purses are up 23% year-over-year, while the mixed doubles purse is up nearly 200%.
The U.S. Open brought in $560 million in revenue in 2024, a 47% increase from $380 million in 2018. Similarly, this year’s prize pool of $90 million is an increase of 57% from the $57.3 million the tournament dished out six years ago.