Prize money: Tennis versus Padel !

For some time now, the prize money has been declining in tennis, with some players saying they are losing their motivation. You will see that they are still well above what can be found at padel !

The recent case of Benoît Paire: “More profits to lose”

During his last statements, Benoît Pair did react to the whole world on his words. The French believe that the new scales on the ATP 250 no longer encourage players to transcend themselves in order to win:

“… I arrive, I take some money and I go to the next tournament: I do my job…. What is surprising with the current circuit is that there are a lot of profits to lose. There, if you win an ATP 250, you only pocket $ 30.000 (25.000 euros). Me, with bye, I took 10.000 (8.400 euros) each time by losing directly. Why tear yourself away like crazy to earn barely more? ”

Svitolina less motivated because of the fall in prize money!

It must be said that the global crisis linked to Covid 19 is not helping. Tournaments behind closed doors, sponsors who certainly lost money during the pandemic, parameters that explain the drop in prize money. From there to losing motivation? Elina Svitolina says:

“It's really not easy for some players to adjust and for me it is a bit too, because we were spoiled during the years when the payout was really high. When you're tired and have to play a big tournament afterwards, you tend to leave them out. ”

It must be said that the Dubai tournament has experienced a spectacular fall with a 30% drop in the overall prize money, and even -68% for the future winners of the tournament ...

A prize which the players of padel would largely be satisfied!

Tennis is a global sport, played by millions of people, seen by millions of spectators. A real machine that generates a lot of money, which allows paying very high levels of top-ranked players. It is obviously extremely difficult to be among the very best in the world, and a career in tennis involves big sacrifices, which we believe are well compensated by the colossal gains that the stars of world tennis are obtaining.

Earnings that the best players in padel worlds would be delighted to touch, even after the decline!

Indeed, if we compare the most important tournaments of the WPT of the APT, if only with the famous ATP and WTA 250, we quickly realize that we do not evolve not in the same dimension. Figures given are for 2021.

A Master of World Padel Tour attribute 146 160 € of prize money (105 for men, 840 for women)
A Grand Master ofAPT Padel Tour offers 118 000 € of prize money (100 for men, 000 for women)
Men's Tennis Open 13 Provence (ATP 250) - totals 409 765 € in prize money
The Open de Lyon de Tennis Dames (WTA 250) offers a prize money 235 538€

Grand Slams: a huge gap

If we look at the winners and finalists, we see that the tennis players win between 2,5 times and 3 times more money on an ATP 250 than players from padel on a WPT or APT Master. (€ 27 for the winner of Open 615, and € 13 for a player who wins a WPT Master (10 for the pair); € 584 for the Open 21 finalist and € 168 for each of the finalists of the WPT Master)

And again, we are not talking here about Grand Chelem ! Australian Open 2021 male and female winner will each win US $ 2, more than 20 times more than what players earn padel highest paid men in prize money in a year ! And even close to 50 times more than the best girls earn in prize money in a year at padel !

We are clearly dealing with a gap, which is largely explained by the difference in popularity between the two sports. Today the padel is still a new sport but gaining interest all over the world. In a few years, with the arrival of major TV rights and sports betting, we could see the gap narrow, but it will take time!

Team Padel May

Team Padel Magazine tries to offer you since 2013 the best of padel, but also surveys, analyzes to try to understand the world of padel. From the game to the politics of our sport, Padel Magazine is at your service.