The US Open is set to stage the richest Grand Slam in tennis history, with a total prize fund of $108 million (£79.2m), representing a 20% rise from last year.
Both singles champions will earn $5.5m (£4.03m), an increase of 10% compared with the 2025 tournament. Players eliminated in the opening round will receive $140,000 (£102,667), up by $30,000, or 27%, from last year.
Included within the overall fund is a $2m (£1.47m) payment to a player welfare programme, an initiative that leading competitors have been pressing all four Grand Slam events to establish.
The Grand Slam tournaments have also confirmed the creation of a joint Grand Slam Player Council. That move addresses another major concern among players, several of whom restricted their media sessions at the French Open and Wimbledon to 15 minutes as they sought to draw attention to their complaints.
The players’ remaining central demand is for each major to allocate 16% of its revenue to prize money, with that share increasing to 22% by 2030. The US Open may already have reached the initial target, although the United States Tennis Association has yet to release its financial report for 2025.
Player representatives have not been shown the numbers either. The tournament generated $559.7m (£410.5m) in revenue in 2024, and assuming that figure grew by 10%, a prize pool of $98.5m would have matched the level sought by the players. The announced $108m fund would therefore exceed that benchmark, though the exact proportion cannot be confirmed until the accounts are published.
The USTA says its financial statement will be made public before the main draw begins.
Craig Tiley, the chief executive who previously led Tennis Australia, called the package “a significant first step in a multi-year investment in athletes”.
