Jannik Sinner Wins Back-to-Back Australian Opens, Taking Home $2.2 Million

Jannik Sinner, 23, notched his second consecutive Australian Open title win on Sunday, beating Alexander Zverev for $2.2 million in prize money. Runners-up took home $1.2 million from Melbourne.

The No. 1 ranked Italian edged No. 2 Zverev, 6-3, 7-6, 6-3 in the final. On the women’s side the day before, 29-year-old Madison Keys claimed her first Grand Slam title win, beating top-ranked Aryna Sabalenka in the final. 

The Australian Open prize money is up 11% from last year, though prize pools have been increasing across the board. The tournament purse was about $60.5 million this year, a more than 11% increase over last year’s pool. 

Last year the US Open distributed a record $75 million in player compensation, a 15% increase from 2023. Wimbledon’s 2024 prize purse totaled $62.4 million—11% higher than in 2023—and about $3.3 million for the singles champs. French Open singles winners received $2.5 million last year—4% more than in 2023, while total prize money totaled about $56.2 million, 7.8% higher than in 2023.

Ranked the No. 19 seed going into the final match, Keys managed to outdo Sabalenka, who was hoping to win her third Australian Open title. Keys started her professional career at age 14 and had surprising success early on—she reached her first Grand Slam final at the US Open in 2017—but had never won a Grand Slam. She edged out Sabalenka 6-3, 2-6, 7-5 on Saturday. Keys became the oldest first-time women’s singles major champion since 33-year-old Flavia Pennetta in 2015.

This is Sinner’s third Grand Slam title; he won the US Open title last year. His career earnings total more than $37 million. 

His winning streak, though, is tainted by a doping case in which he was cleared by the International Tennis Integrity Agency for what it determined was accidental contamination by a banned anabolic steroid last year. (He had to return the $325,000 he earned at the Indian Wells tournament last August after testing positive for the banned substance.) The World Anti-Doping Agency appealed that decision and wants to ban him from the sport for at least one year. He faces a hearing with the Court of Arbitration for Sport scheduled for April 16-17 in Switzerland.

In a press conference after his victory, Sinner was asked about how the appeal coming before the next Grand Slam might impact his focus. “Tough to say. I’m not thinking about it at the moment. I just came off an amazing run here. I want to enjoy this moment to be honest,” he responded.

This year’s tournament held some dramatic moments, including player pushback on problematic questions and comments from interviewers called out by American Ben Shelton and Novak Djokovic. In the semi-final on Friday, 24-time Grand Slam champion Djokovic was met with fierce booing from the crowd when he decided to retire from his match against Zverev, unable to continue because of a muscle tear in his left leg. 

After his loss Sunday, Zverev stood at a microphone waiting to speak at the trophy ceremony, someone in the stadium yelled out the names of two of the tennis star’s ex-girlfriends who have accused him of physical abuse in the past, saying “Australia believes” them. At a news conference following the match, Zverev, 27, was asked for his reaction to the interruption on court. “I believe there are no more accusations,” he said. “There haven’t been for — what? — nine months now…. I think I’ve done everything I can, and I’m not about to open that subject again.”