Got rich by 500 million. Crazy progress of the famous Russian tennis player

This season became the most successful for Andrei Rublev in his entire professional career. In the spring, the Russian tennis player won the Masters 1000 series tournament for the first time and earned the largest prize money in his career.

Thanks to successful performances in the season as a whole, Rublev surpassed the landmark mark of $20 million in career prize money and entered the top 30 richest tennis players in history.

But he is still very far from the main rich people with a racket.

Progress on the court is the key to financial success

This year Andrey not only trained a lot, but also worked on excessive emotionality. The tennis player’s behavior during matches has become much calmer, and his play has become more confident. Experts are inclined to believe that it was psychological progress that contributed to the growth of Rublev’s results this season.

The first significant victory came to Rublev in April. At the Masters in Monte Carlo, the Russian turned the tide of what had been an unsuccessful final for him and beat Holger Rune in a very difficult fight. And a few days later, prize money in the amount of 892 thousand euros ($955 thousand) arrived in his bank account.

Rublev earned another $662 thousand a month ago thanks to a successful performance in Shanghai. The tennis player was one step away from the title, losing in the final to Hubert Hurkacz.

Andrey Rublev / Photo: © Hugo Hu / Contributor / Getty Images Sport / Gettyimages.ru

Five million without Grand Slam semi-finals

The most financially rewarding tournaments in tennis are traditionally the Grand Slam tournaments. Rublev performed at all four majors in 2023, but was never able to break the curse of the quarterfinals. At the Australian Open, Andrei at this stage lost to the future champion Novak Djokovic, earning almost $373 thousand. A similar story was repeated in Great Britain: the Olympic champion again stopped one step from the semifinals, and again Djokovic became his offender. For playing at Wimbledon, the organizers paid Rublev 340 thousand pounds (approximately $418 thousand).

In New York, the Russian also stopped at the quarterfinal stage, only this time he could not get past his compatriot Daniil Medvedev. The prize money amounted to $455 thousand. The worst Grand Slam tournament for Rublev was Roland Garros. Having lost in the third round, he earned 142 thousand euros ($151 thousand).

Andrey’s total prize money at the Grand Slam tournaments amounted to almost $1.4 million, and during the season the athlete earned a total of $5.4 million (496.4 million rubles). The amount seems cosmic when compared with the average salary in Russia or even the earnings of athletes in other disciplines. However, it is important to understand that a large part of this money goes to pay taxes, plus in tennis, players independently pay for the work, travel and accommodation of their team. And moving around the world on your own is an expensive pleasure. Contracts with sponsors serve as a bonus for top players. Rublev cooperates with several large companies, but the athlete’s earnings off the court are not disclosed.

Only Medvedev and Kafelnikov are higher

Thanks to a powerful season, Rublev surpassed the $20 million mark in career prize money. Previously, only 29 players managed to do this. The leader in total earnings on the court is 24-time Grand Slam champion Novak Djokovic ($176 million), second place is occupied by Rafael Nadal ($134.6 million), and third place is Roger Federer ($130.5 million). Russian Daniil Medvedev is in eighth position with $34.7 million in prize money.

Yevgeny Kafelnikov is also higher than Rublev in this ranking, however, Andrey can surpass his result of $23.8 million already this season. To do this, you need to win the Final ATP Championship in Turin, which will be held from November 12 to 19. The winner will receive a check for $4.8 million in addition to the title of best tennis player of the season.