The US Open Is Paying Out a Hundred and Eight Million Dollars and Losing in the First Round Is Worth a Hundred and Forty Thousand
The fourth round begins on Saturday. The tournament's prize fund is a record, and the biggest percentage rise went to the players who lose first.
The first half of the US Open fourth round is played on Saturday, at a tournament that is paying out a hundred and eight million dollars, which is the largest prize fund in the sport.
Each singles champion takes five and a half million, up ten per cent on last year's five million. Each runner-up takes two point eight million. A doubles-winning pair takes a million between them.
The number that matters more is at the other end. Losing in the first round of the singles is worth a hundred and forty thousand dollars, a rise of twenty-seven point three per cent, which is nearly three times the increase the champion received.
That is a deliberate redistribution and it addresses a real problem. A player ranked outside the top hundred spends most of the year losing money: coaching, flights, stringing, a physio if there is anything left. One first-round appearance at a major, on the new figure, covers a season of that. Two cover a career decision.
The tournament runs from the thirtieth of August to the thirteenth of September, which makes Saturday day seven. Sixteen players will be left in each singles draw by the end of the weekend.
The Open has been raising the floor faster than the ceiling for several years now, under pressure from a players' association that has spent most of its existence being told the money is not there. It appears to have been there.