The US Open has raised its total prize pot to $108 million for 2026, a 20 per cent jump on last year and, by some distance, the biggest purse any Grand Slam has offered.
The headline number is $5.5 million each for the men's and women's singles champions. The figure that matters more to the rest of the locker room sits at the other end of the draw: a first-round loser leaves New York with a guaranteed $140,000, which for a player ranked outside the top hundred is a season's budget rather than a bonus.
Taken against 2024, the increase is roughly 44 per cent in two years — the clearest sign yet of how quickly the economics of the majors are moving, and of the pressure the players' side of the game has been applying to the four slams.
Summarised by TennisArena from reporting by Business Standard — https://www.business-standard.com/sports/other-sports-news/us-open-2026-a-record-payday-historic-chases-and-stars-in-the-spotlight-126083000556_1.html