Five Facts To Show How Absurd Ash Barty’s WTA Finals Prize Money Earnings Is - UBITENNIS
Connect with us

Focus

Five Facts To Show How Absurd Ash Barty’s WTA Finals Prize Money Earnings Is

Here is why Barty’s win in Shenzhen is so significant for the world of sport.

Published

on

Ashleigh Barty - WTA Finals Shenzhen 2019 (foto via Twitter, @WTAFinals)

Ash Barty isn’t just the queen of the 2019 WTA Finals. She is a very rich queen of the end-of-season extravaganza.

On Sunday the world No.1 became the first Australian player to win the tournament since 1976. Disposing of last year’s champion, Elina Svitolina, in straight sets. This season marks the start of a 10-year deal, where the tournament will be held in the Chinese city of Shenzhen. Under the agreement, a record prize money pool was implemented. Barty, who won four out of five matches played over the week, has earned $4,420,000. According to data provided by SAP Sports, she spent a total of eight hours and 52 minutes on the court throughout the championships. Meaning that for every hour played in China, she earned an estimated $490,000.

“It’s been an incredible season. Money aside, it kind of means nothing to me. I know I have the love and the support of my family.” Barty said in her press conference.
“I try and work hard every single day to chase my dreams. Regardless of how many zeros is sitting in my bank account, it doesn’t change the way I live my life, who I am and how I live as a person.’
“I think even though it’s incredible, we’re breaking records this week in particular, putting tennis on the map, putting WTA tennis on the map. I feel like we’ve earned that right to be recognized more as a global sport. For me, it doesn’t change a thing regardless of what is sitting in the bank account.”

Despite winning the biggest prize money payment from a tournament in the history of the sport, Barty isn’t showing any signs of going on a massive spending spree. Joking that she is ‘boring’ when it comes to spending cash.

“I’m pretty boring. I don’t really spend a lot on myself.” She said.
“I obviously like to spoil my family. I’m in a position where I can spoil my niece and nephew. But I’m certainly not one that lives an extravagant lifestyle. I’m pretty happy in my little house at home. I’ve got everything that I need.”

Nevertheless, it shouldn’t be underestimated just how surreal Barty’s $4.42M payment is.

Here are five things to know about Barty’s prize money goldmine.

1. It equates almost 30% of her career earnings

As of October 21st, 2019, Barty’s career prize money stood at $12,095,667. As a result of her latest triumph, her tally rises to $16,515,667. This means that 26.7% of her prize money earnings are from her triumph at the WTA Finals. As for Barty’s earnings in 2019 alone, Shenzhen accounts for 61% of it ($4,420,000 out of $11,307, 587).

2. It is more than any grand slam winner has ever earned

This year saw prize money increases at every grand slam tournament. However, the singles champions of any of those four majors (male or female) still didn’t claim as much as Barty did. The closest was the US Open, but it was still over $500,000 less than Barty’s payment.

Prize money awarded to the singles champions of the 2019 grand slams

  • Australian Open: 2.9M (CNBC)
  • French Open 2.62 M (Bleacher report)
  • Wimbledon 3.06M (CNN)
  • US Open 3.85M (official site)

NOTE: based on American dollars

3. Almost one in three top 30 players on the WTA Tour has earned less in their entire careers

Incredibly, if world No.1 never played an entire professional tournament except Shenzhen this year, her career prize money of $4.42M would still be more than nine players currently ranked in the top 30. Below is the list of players who has made less than that amount (as of 21 October 2019).

  • (No.12) Sofia Kenin USA $2,616,692
  • (No.16) Marketa Vondrousova CZE $3,055,580
  • (No.20) Donna Vekic CRO $4,000,896
  • (No.21) Amanda Anisimova USA $1,560,150
  • (No.22) Maria Sakkari GRE $2,709,584
  • (No.24) Dayana Yastremska UKR $1,499,077
  • (No.26) Karolina Muchova CZE $1,194,382
  • (No.29) Wang Qiang CHN $4,350,109*Ranking as of 3/11/19

4. Other sports are in admiration

Earlier this year Egan Bernal became the first Latin American to win the Tour de France. A 21-stage cycling race that is more than 2000 miles long. However, Bernal won an estimated $557,000. Working out at just over one eighth of what Barty earned. Cycling isn’t the only sport to be outdone by the WTA Tour :-

  • Winner of The 2019 Masters (golf) – $2,070,000
  • Winner of the 2019 Cricket World Cup – $4,000,000
  • Winner of the 2019 Tour de France – $557,000 (estimate based on 500,000 euros)
  • 2019 World snooker champion – $646,800 (estimate conversion rate of £500,000)
  • An individual gold medallist at the 2019 IAAF World Championships (athletics) – $80,000

5. Barty has earned more than the three most recent Masters 1000 winners combined

On Sunday Novak Djokovic won the final Masters tournament of the year in Paris. Defeating Denis Shapovalov in straight sets. Prior to him, Daniil Medvedev triumphed in Cincinnati and Shanghai. Both of which are in the same tournament category as Paris. Yet, on financial terms, it has nothing of Barty.

Cincinnati Champion – Medvedev (won $1,114,225)
Shanghai champion – Medvedev (won $1,374,995)
Paris Champion – Djokovic (won $1,111,969)*
TOTAL = $3,601,189 ($818,811 less than Barty)

*Estimate conversion of 995,720 euros.

NOTE: Figures used in article is American dollars based on media sources and conversion rates

 

Focus

Indian Wells Daily Preview: The Championship Matches in Men’s and Women’s Singles

Published

on

Iga Swiatek during Friday’s semifinals (twitter.com/BNPPARIBASOPEN)

It’s championship Sunday in tennis paradise, featuring rematches from recent finals in the desert.

In the women’s singles championship match, it’s a rematch from the 2022 final, as World No.1 Iga Swiatek faces a rejuvenated Maria Sakkari.  And the men’s singles championship match is a rematch from just a year ago, as Carlos Alcaraz takes on Daniil Medvedev.  Will Iga and Carlitos become multi-time champions of this event, or will Maria and Daniil win their first Indian Wells titles?


Iga Swiatek (1) vs. Maria Sakkari (9) – 11:00am on Stadium 1

This is yet another tournament during which Swiatek has gone completely unchallenged.  She has not dropped a set, and lost only 17 games through nine completed sets.  Iga is 7-2 in WTA 1000 finals, and an excellent 18-4 in tour finals overall.

By contrast, four out of Sakkari’s five matches this fortnight have gone three sets, including the last two against top Americans Coco Gauff and Emma Navarro.  Friday’s night’s semifinal against Gauff was a dramatic, extended affair, which went late into the evening due to a long rain delay in the desert.  Playing such a draining contest, and then coming back just 36 hours later to play at 11:00am in the morning, with be an extremely challenging turnaround for Maria.

After a subpar 2023 season, Sakkari is back to playing her best tennis, in the first tournament of the working relationship with her new coach, David Witt.  She is 1-2 in WTA 1000 finals, though she just won her first title at this level six months ago in Guadalajara.  But Maria is a meek 2-7 in tour finals, and as per Tennis Abstract, is just 3-7 against top 10 opposition within the last year.

Sakkari claimed their first two meetings, back in 2021 before Swiatek rose to the top of the sport.  The last three have all gone to Iga, with the most recent being the 2022 final at this same event.  All five of their matches have been straight-setters.  So while this is Maria’s favorite event, and her new coach has helped restore her confidence, Iga remains a clear favorite to win her second title in Indian Wells.


Daniil Medvedev (4) vs. Carlos Alcaraz (2)  – Not Before 2:00pm on Stadium 1

Despite playing in a location where “it never rains,” both the men’s and women’s semifinals suffered from severe rain delays, leading to the men’s semis finishing much later on Saturday than expected.  And both went three sets, so neither Alcaraz nor Medvedev will be fully fresh on Sunday.  Carlitos came back from a set down to hand Jannik Sinner his first defeat of the year, while Daniil came from a set down to oust American Tommy Paul.

In the championship here a year ago, Alcaraz comfortably prevailed against a depleted Medvedev, who had won 19 matches in the month leading up to that final.  They would go on to play three more times in 2023, with Carlitos taking three of four.  However, Daniil was able to overcome the Spaniard in the US Open semifinals, winning 6-3 in the fourth.  Overall Alcaraz is 3-2 against Medvedev.

Carlitos has not been the same player since losing the near four-hour final last summer in Cincinnati to Novak Djokovic.  But his victory over Sinner on Saturday felt significant, and it brought him to his first final since that one in Cincinnati. 

Alcaraz is 12-4 in ATP finals, and 4-1 at this level.  Medvedev is 20-17 in ATP finals, and 6-3 in Masters finals.  Hard courts easily remain Daniil’s strongest surface, though he made it painfully clear here a year ago that the slower-playing courts in Indian Wells are not to his liking.  And coming off an inspiring effort to defeat Sinner, the ATP’s best player of the last six months, Carlitos should be favored to become the first man to defend this title since Djokovic in 2016.


Sunday’s full Order of Play is here.

Continue Reading

Focus

Indian Wells Daily Preview: Alcaraz and Sinner Reignite an Electrifying Rivalry in the Semifinals

Published

on

Jannik Sinner during Thursday’s quarterfinals (twitter.com/BNPPARIBASOPEN)

The men’s singles semifinals will be played on Saturday, as will the women’s doubles championship match.

18 months ago at the US Open, Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner contested one of the best matches in recent memory.  After five hours and 15 minutes of scintillating rallies, Alcaraz would prevail 6-3 in the fifth, and go on to claim his first Major a few days later.  On Saturday, they meet for the eighth time at tour level, in the most anticipated semifinal of the fortnight.

The other men’s singles semifinal sees last year’s runner-up, Daniil Medvedev, take on the No.2-ranked American, Tommy Paul.

Plus, the women’s doubles final features two of the top three seeds.  At 11:00am local time, it will be Su-Wei Hsieh and Elise Mertens (1) vs. Storm Hunter and Katerina Siniakova (3).  At January’s Australian Open, Su-Wei and Mertens defeated Hunter and Siniakova in the semifinals, before going on to win the title.


Jannik Sinner (3) vs. Carlos Alcaraz (2) – Not Before 1:30pm on Stadium 1

Sinner leads their head-to-head 4-3, and 3-2 on hard courts.  They’ve met three times since the aforementioned 2022 US Open epic, including in the same round of this same event a year ago, when Alcaraz prevailed in straight sets.  Two weeks later in the semis of Miami, Jannik claimed a three-hour three-setter.  And six months ago in Beijing, the Italian won in straights.

These two phenomenal players have achieved contrasting results across the past six months.  Sinner is now 36-2 since last summer’s US Open, with four singles titles.  He also propelled Italy to the Davis Cup title.  Jannik has beaten Novak Djokovic three times during this span, and also achieved his first Major championship.  However, within that same time, Alcaraz has reached no tournament finals, and is 0-4 in his last four semifinals.

Jannik is an undefeated 16-0 in 2024, and has not dropped a set in Indian Wells.  Carlitos is 10-3 this season, and has taken eight consecutive sets after losing the first set he played here last week.  Based on recent form, Sinner is a considerable favorite to advance to his first championship match in the desert.  And in doing so, he would take the No.2 ranking away from Alcaraz, reaching a new career-high.


Tommy Paul (17) vs. Daniil Medvedev (4) – Last on Stadium 1

Medvedev is 13-2 on the year, and has now appeared in the semifinals in all three tournaments he’s played this season.  He dropped one set earlier in the event, to Sebastian Korda.  Daniil is vying for his second consecutive final in Indian Wells, and his first Masters 1000 final since surprisingly winning a clay court title almost a year ago in Rome.

This is a second semifinal at this level for Paul, after first achieving this feat last summer in Canada, where he upset Alcaraz in the quarterfinals.  The 26-year-old American had a poor ending to his 2023 season, going 6-8, but is now 14-4 in 2024 after reaching back-to-back finals last month in Dallas and Delray Beach.  Like Daniil, Tommy has lost just one set this fortnight, in the quarterfinals to Casper Ruud.

Paul is extremely quick around the court, and likes to use his forehand to end points.  Yet he has an 0-2 record against Medvedev, which includes a 6-2, 6-1 loss six months ago in Beijing.  While the crowd will be solidly behind Tommy, Daniil’s hard court abilities are well-established, and the fourth seed should be favored on Saturday.


Saturday’s full Order of Play is here.

Continue Reading

Focus

Novak Djokovic Announces Withdrawal From Miami Open

Novak Djokovic will not be playing the Miami Open after losing early in Indian Wells.

Published

on

(@BNPPARIBASOPEN - Twitter)

Novak Djokovic has announced that he has withdrawn from the second Masters 1000 of the season in Miami.

The news comes after the world number one lost in the third round of Indian Wells to lucky loser Luca Nardi.

Many people expected Djokovic to play in Miami given the Serb’s result in California.

However that appears not to be the case as Djokovic has announce on X that he has withdrawn from the tournament.

This means for the second time in three years Djokovic will enter the clay court season without winning a trophy.

The Serb will look to change that stat when he plays the Monte-Carlo Rolex Masters which starts on the 7th of April.

Continue Reading
Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement

Trending