By Richard Pagliaro | Friday, August 28, 2026
Photo credit: Explora Journeys
NEW YORK—A right knee injury knocked Jannik Sinner out of the US Open.
World No. 1 Sinner still emerges as a major winner in New York today.
Reigning Wimbledon champion Sinner supplants rival Carlos Alcaraz to top the annual Forbes World’s Highest-Paid Tennis Players list of 2026. Read Forbes editor Brett Knight’s Forbes article on tennis’ top paid stars here.
The 2026 season is a landmark campaign for tennis finance. For the first time ever there are more women than men comprising tennis’ Top 10 earners on Forbes’ ranking list.
Six of the world’s Top 10 tennis players on the Forbes list are women.
The return of 44-year-old superstar Serena Williams, who earned an estimated $40.1 million over the past year helped elevate women to make a major impact on the Forbes Top 10 list.
The 23-time champion Serena Williams ranked third overall among tennis champion earners over the past year.
Only No. 1 Sinner, who tops the list with $58 Million in earnings thanks to his sponsorship deals with Nike, Rolex, Head, Gucci and Explora Journeys, and Alcaraz surpass Serena in earnings.
The Wimbledon winner Sinner supplants Alcaraz, who beat Sinner in the 2025 US Open final to regain No. 1, for the top spot among tennis earners.
The 23-year-old Alcaraz, an ambassador for Nike, Babolat, Rolex, and Louis Vuitton, comes in at $53.7 million in earnings over the last year.
Last year, Alcaraz led the list earning an estimated $48.3 million, before taxes and management fees.
Three of the Top 5 players on the Forbes list are WTA stars.
World No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka, who collected $36.1 Million, is fourth and two-time major winner Coco Gauff, who made $35.5 million in total earnings over the past year is No. 5. That’s a slight drop for Gauff, who was the highest-paid female athlete in the world the prior year earning $37.2 million. That made the Delray Beach-born baseliner third on Forbes’ 2025 tennis financial champions list.
“Your life is still gonna be your life regardless if you win or lose,” Gauff told Forbes. “And at that point, you play free.”
These players round out Forbes’ 2026 top earners list:
At No. 6, Grand Slam King Novak Djokovic earned $30.2 million.
No. 7 Olympic gold-medal champion Zheng Qinwen made $22.6 million.
No. 8 was Iga Swiatek at $20.5 million, with Alexander Zverev in ninth place at $18.7 million. Rounding out the Top 10 is Elena Rybakina, who collected $17.4 million.
A few more interesting facts from Forbes editor Brett Knight’s Forbes article on tennis’ top paid stars:
*The Top 10 highest-paid tennis players in the world combined to earn an estimated $333 million over the past year. That’s a 17 percent rise over the 2025 totals. Forbes attributes that to “the growing earning power of women’s players” as well as players uniting to demand a greater piece of major revenues from the four Grand Slams.
*No. 1 Sinner’s $58 Million in earnings, include a total of $23 Million in prize money over the last 12 months, is the top figure to ever appear on the Forbes list despite the fact the Italian has been sidelined with a knee injury since July.
*Sinner is just the fourth player to top the Forbes annual earning list in its 19-year history. Sinner dethroned Alcaraz for the top spot and joins Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic to hold the title as Forbes financial champion.
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