{"id":220769,"date":"2026-01-07T04:14:11","date_gmt":"2026-01-07T04:14:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/220769\/"},"modified":"2026-01-07T04:14:11","modified_gmt":"2026-01-07T04:14:11","slug":"australian-open-prize-fund-reaches-record-130-million","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/220769\/","title":{"rendered":"Australian Open prize fund reaches record $130 million"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Madison<\/p>\n

\nMadison Keys of the USA holds the Daphne Akhurst Memorial Cup following her Women\u2019s final win over Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus during the 2025 Australian Open at Melbourne Park.
\nPhoto: AAP \/ www.photosport.nz\n<\/p>\n

The prize fund for this year’s Australian Open has been increased by 16 percent to NZ$130 million, making it the largest purse in the tournament’s history, organisers announced on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

The two singles champions will each pocket $4.83 million, up from the $4.1 million which Jannik Sinner and Madison Keys took home last year.<\/p>\n

“This 16 percent increase demonstrates our commitment to supporting tennis careers at every level,” said Tennis Australia chief executive Craig Tiley.<\/p>\n

“From boosting qualifying prize money by 55 percent since 2023 to enhancing player benefits, we’re ensuring professional tennis is sustainable for all competitors.”<\/p>\n

The US Open offered the largest prize fund of the Grand Slams last year with NZ$156m, while Wimbledon offered a total of NZ$125m and the French Open NZ$114m.<\/p>\n

\"Alexander<\/p>\n

\nAlexander Zverev of Germany serves during his Men\u2019s Singles final against Jannik Sinner of Italy during the 2025 Australian Open at Melbourne Park.
\nPhoto: AAP \/ www.photosport.nz\n<\/p>\n

First-round losers at the Australian Open will walk away with $175,000, a hike of 14 percent from 2025, while the qualifying rounds will see the largest hike of 16 percent. Those falling in third round of qualifying will earn $97,500.<\/p>\n

The prize money increase is part of Tennis Australia’s $157m investment across the “Summer of Tennis”, which Tiley said, “strengthens tennis’s foundation, ensuring the sport’s long-term health and commercial growth”.<\/p>\n

The Australian Open runs from 18 January to 1 February at Melbourne Park.<\/p>\n

-Reuters<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Madison Keys of the USA holds the Daphne Akhurst Memorial Cup following her Women\u2019s final win over Aryna…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":220770,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[48,47,111,43,139,69,49,46,44,45,213],"class_list":{"0":"post-220769","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-audio","9":"tag-current-affairs","10":"tag-new-zealand","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-newzealand","13":"tag-nz","14":"tag-podcasts","15":"tag-public-radio","16":"tag-radio-new-zealand","17":"tag-rnz","18":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/220769","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=220769"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/220769\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/220770"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=220769"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=220769"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=220769"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}