Sixty-four men and 64 women will lose in the first round of the U.S. Open. For many of them, it will still be their richest payday of the year.
Players who lose in the first round of the U.S. Open singles draws earn $140,000 for their participation. That number is more than triple the $43,300 awarded in 2016 and more than nine times the $15,000 from 2005. The six-figure first-round payout still pales in comparison to the $5.5 million winner’s prize, but it has increased at a faster rate than the later-round prizes over the past several decades.
The Australian Open, French Open and Wimbledon also awarded at least $100,000 each for first-round losses this year. For context, that’s comparable to the $112,400 payout for winning the 2026 Winston Salem Open, an ATP 250 event that runs the week before the U.S. Open and this year featured eight players ranked in the world’s top 50.
For players outside the top 50, who sometimes don’t automatically qualify for Tour-level events, Grand Slam losses present a more financially lucrative opportunity than winning tournaments.
“The Grand Slams are the places where, as a player not ranked super high, you get most of the money during the year,” former top-50 player Maximilian Marterer said in 2024. “It’s obviously something that gives the guys a little safety in order to pay their bills for the coaches, for the flights.”
Australia’s No. 95-ranked Aleksandar Vukic, for instance, has made $717,000 in prize money this season. He lost in the first round of the first three majors and plays Japan’s Rei Sakamoto in his first-round matchup at the U.S. Open. Yet he has still made $447,000 from the four Grand Slams, accounting for more than 60% of his earnings for the year. They are easily his four highest hauls from any events this season.
His countryman Christopher O’Connell, who lost in the first round of all four Grand Slams in 2025, cleaned boats and worked in retail to sustain himself financially earlier in his career, a story familiar to many lower-ranked players. Between travel, coaching, lodging and equipment, tennis expenses can pile up quickly.
The first-round prize money at the Grand Slams is so significant that a rule is in place to disincentivize injured players from competing while physically compromised just to pocket the cash. Players who withdraw from a major earn 50% of the first-round prize money as long as they are declared unfit to play by a tournament doctor, the withdrawal occurs after the Tuesday before the tournament, and they have played an event in the previous 21 days.
The hard work that tennis players put in during smaller tournaments throughout the calendar pays off when they accumulate enough ranking points to qualify for Grand Slams and earn large paychecks, regardless of their on-court results. The top 104 singles players in the rankings get automatic entry into the four slams.
Eight wild cards, however, are also given out for each major tournament. Those often go to young, up-and-coming players from the host country for whom the first-round prize money is a huge career boost.
“When you’re playing Futures and Challengers, you’re not making too much money, so it’s hard to invest in yourself, and maybe you’re a little bit worried about making sure you don’t run out of funds,” Rinky Hijikata said in 2023, when he received a U.S. Open wild card at age 22.
Not all athletes can accept their six-figure paycheck, however. The NCAA still prohibits college athletes from receiving professional prize money exceeding actual and necessary expenses from the event. Collegiate players occasionally get wild cards into the U.S. Open main draw but would lose their college eligibility if they accepted the full prize money.
For everyone else, though, winning a first-round match on Sunday, Monday or Tuesday would mean an additional $50,000 for making the second round.
