Sport News: Carlos Alcaraz and Aryna Sabalenka lose $2 million of prize money after winning US Open…See the reason why

Carlos Alcaraz and Aryna Sabalenka both received a cheque for $5 million (US) for winning their respective US Open titles – the largest prize for champions in grand slam tennis history. But both will only pocket about $3 million of that due to tax laws in the States.

According to the local laws, there’s a tax rate of 37 per cent on earnings over $609,351 – the highest bracket of federal income taxes. It means Alcaraz and Sabalenka will both be stripped of about $1.85m.

When you add in the percentage of players’ prize money that goes to coaches, agents, support staff and travel expenses, the US Open champions have about $2 million taken out. Thankfully for Alcaraz he won’t be hit with another tax bill when he returns home to Spain due to the Spain-US double taxation treaty.

As for Sabalenka, she usually resides in Miami despite representing her homeland Belarus. For tax reasons, a number of the world’s top tennis players (and other athletes from different sports) have residences in Monaco or the Bahamas – both tax-free havens.

Despite losing $2 million each, it’s unlikely to faze Alcaraz or Sabalenka. Alcaraz’s sixth career grand slam title took his career earnings to $53.5 million – the sixth-most of all time amongst male players. As for Sabalenka, she now has four majors and $42.3m – fourth-most in women’s tennis history.

This year’s US Open provided the largest prize pool in tennis history, with a record $90 million on offer for all players. It marked a 20 per cent increase on the $75m that was handed out in 2024.

The $5 million for each singles champion was up 39 per cent from $3.6m last year. The United States Tennis Association also chipped in this year with stipends for players’ travel costs and expenses while in New York.

Coach reveals 15-day regime that helped Alcaraz beat Sinner
Alcaraz’s triumph over Jannik Sinner in the men’s final saw the Spaniard become the new World No.1. The 22-year-old now owns a 10-5 head-to-head record against the Italian, including seven of their last eight meetings.

The only victory for Sinner in their last eight encounters was in the Wimbledon final in July. That led to Alcaraz’s coach Juan Carlos Ferrero devising a specific training plan to take down Sinner.

For two weeks straight, Alcaraz and Ferrero focused solely on Sinner’s weaknesses and figuring out how to exploit them. “Let’s say we watch little bit the matches, Roland Garros and Wimbledon. We try to see the little things that we can improve to play against Jannik,” Ferrero said on Monday.

“I think it was very important, because we maybe practiced for 15 days, like, very focused on the details that we have to improve to play against Jannik. We know that in this kind of surface, on hard courts, Jannik is always very difficult to play and winning a lot of matches. I think it helps a lot, because [Carlos] realised what he has to improve a lot, and I was very focused on it.”

Jannik Sinner knows he has to change
Sinner had won 27-straight matches at hard-court grand slams, but it all came crashing down against Alcaraz. The Italian has admitted he’ll have to devise his own specific plan to combat Alcaraz.

I was very predictable on court,” Sinner admitted. “He did many things, he changed up the game. That’s also his style of how he plays. Now it’s going to be on me if I want to make changes or not, you know?

“We are going to work on that. I’m going to aim to, maybe even losing some matches from now on, but trying to do some changes trying to be a bit more unpredictable as a player, because I think that’s what I have to do, trying to become a better tennis player.”