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TENNIS · 103 PLAYERS PAID

The 1987 tennis prize money list

$16,275,258 won on court in 1987, split between 103 players. Ivan Lendl took $2,003,656 of it.

Every player the tour paid in 1987, ranked by what they won that season and nothing else. A career total rewards longevity; a season list rewards the year, which is why the two rankings almost never agree at the top. The season is up 21.1% on 1986, and is the 40th biggest of the 55 seasons we hold.

PAID OUT $16.3m
TOP EARNER $2.0m
PLAYERS PAID 103
OVER $1M 3
FROM THE MAJORS 19.8%

The twenty biggest earners of 1987

Prize money won in the 1987 season

Top ten hold 51.2%

Ivan Lendl $2.0m Stefan Edberg $1.6m Mats Wilander $1.2m Pat Cash $566k Boris Becker $559k Anders Jarryd $555k Emilio Sanchez $535k Brad Gilbert $506k Andres Gomez $434k Jimmy Connors $422k John McEnroe $392k Martin Jaite $288k Sergio Casal $266k David Pate $251k Paul Annacone $247k Guy Forget $224k Christo Van Rensburg $210k Jakob Hlasek $207k Andre Agassi $206k Amos Mansdorf $194k

Ten players out of 103 took 51.2% of the season. A prize-money sport concentrates that way by construction: there is no wage and no appearance money on this list, so everything follows the rounds, and a player who reaches the second week of four majors has out-earned a year of quarter-finals everywhere else.

What the top ten did the year before

1987 against 1986, for the ten biggest earners of 1987

1986 to 1987

# Player 1986 1987 Change
01 Ivan Lendl United States $1,987,537 $2,003,656 +0.8%
02 Stefan Edberg Sweden $1,028,906 $1,587,467 +54.3%
03 Mats Wilander Sweden $649,652 $1,164,674 +79.3%
04 Pat Cash Australia $115,396 $565,934 +390.4%
05 Boris Becker Germany $1,434,324 $558,979 -61.0%
06 Anders Jarryd Sweden $442,036 $554,977 +25.6%
07 Emilio Sanchez Spain $333,566 $534,658 +60.3%
08 Brad Gilbert United States $308,492 $506,100 +64.1%
09 Andres Gomez Ecuador $610,121 $433,813 -28.9%
10 Jimmy Connors United States $253,543 $422,026 +66.5%

A season list moves harder than a career list. Prize money is paid for results and nothing else, so a player who was hurt for half of 1986 can treble his money in a year without doing anything differently, and a player who slips two rounds at three majors loses a third of his.

Every player paid in 1987

Ranked by prize money won that season

103 players

# Player Titles W-L Events From majors Prize money
001 Ivan Lendl United States 9 90-13 24 $584,783 $2,003,656$2.0m
002 Stefan Edberg Sweden 13 128-19 36 $296,410 $1,587,467$1.6m
003 Mats Wilander Sweden 5 109-34 45 $263,450 $1,164,674
004 Pat Cash Australia 4 67-23 30 $279,345 $565,934
005 Boris Becker Germany 6 86-24 33 $79,626 $558,979
006 Anders Jarryd Sweden 8 108-34 46 $167,339 $554,977
007 Emilio Sanchez Spain 10 147-52 65 $68,361 $534,658
008 Brad Gilbert United States 2 84-43 45 $51,976 $506,100
009 Andres Gomez Ecuador 3 98-35 45 $79,140 $433,813
010 Jimmy Connors United States 57-19 18 $142,707 $422,026
011 John McEnroe United States 46-17 20 $34,331 $391,766
012 Martin Jaite Argentina 2 56-30 33 $16,603 $287,923
013 Sergio Casal Spain 7 104-51 60 $41,781 $266,351
014 David Pate United States 3 63-36 39 $16,191 $251,121
015 Paul Annacone United States 3 85-39 44 $39,144 $247,122
016 Guy Forget France 5 77-37 49 $49,615 $224,273
017 Christo Van Rensburg South Africa 3 68-30 35 $22,920 $210,088
018 Jakob Hlasek Switzerland 1 68-42 49 $33,428 $207,416
019 Andre Agassi United States 1 31-26 29 $11,553 $205,555
020 Amos Mansdorf Israel 1 48-39 42 $22,353 $193,742
021 Henri Leconte France 38-35 35 $54,840 $193,650
022 Guillermo Perez-Roldan Argentina 3 46-21 26 $2,665 $193,226
023 Jonas Svensson Sweden 1 37-32 35 $32,094 $176,916
024 Claudio Mezzadri Switzerland 4 64-35 45 $6,881 $175,282
025 Peter Lundgren Sweden 2 46-38 42 $14,083 $171,038
026 Kevin Curren United States 3 53-29 34 $12,769 $170,371
027 Wally Masur Australia 1 54-41 44 $42,635 $165,259
028 Luiz Mattar Brazil 4 52-32 43 $8,790 $163,332
029 Kelly Evernden New Zealand 3 51-34 41 $35,059 $149,667
030 Scott Davis United States 51-43 43 $26,241 $145,438
031 Ramesh Krishnan India 2 56-41 46 $42,182 $144,385
032 Michiel Schapers Netherlands 2 52-41 47 $26,573 $142,984
033 Eliot Teltscher United States 1 31-21 23 $4,228 $141,888
034 Johan Kriek United States 1 42-34 36 $32,259 $141,398
035 Ronald Agenor Haiti 1 43-34 37 $8,166 $140,176
036 Jimmy Arias United States 33-36 36 $22,682 $129,036
037 Jim Grabb United States 2 39-31 36 $13,930 $126,208
038 Mikael Pernfors Sweden 34-25 26 $20,693 $116,696
039 Jaime Yzaga Peru 2 27-28 32 $15,645 $113,569
040 Andrei Chesnokov Russia 1 31-17 24 $24,086 $112,980
041 Karel Novacek Czechia 1 27-28 32 $31,480 $105,777
042 Jay Berger United States 34-25 27 $14,421 $104,096
043 Derrick Rostagno United States 23-24 26 $18,032 $101,908
044 John Fitzgerald Australia 38-33 34 $19,123 $90,384
045 Mark Woodforde Australia 1 57-40 41 $31,479 $79,454
046 Diego Perez Uruguay 36-38 38 $17,083 $79,116
047 Javier Sanchez Spain 2 42-38 41 $12,745 $79,084
048 Paolo Cane Italy 37-34 37 $13,202 $79,068
049 Gilad Bloom Israel 4 46-41 45 $16,414 $78,571
050 Horst Skoff Austria 26-30 31 $7,325 $77,508
051 Gary Muller South Africa 1 36-34 35 $17,163 $73,845
052 Thomas Muster Austria 35-26 33 $19,705 $73,325
053 Cassio Motta Brazil 1 34-33 37 $7,082 $67,520
054 Marty Davis United States 30-29 29 $5,558 $64,976
055 Todd Witsken United States 26-29 30 $17,810 $62,787
056 Patrik Kuhnen Germany 2 26-23 26 $8,456 $60,112
057 Libor Pimek Belgium 21-30 30 $11,998 $59,225
058 Horacio de la Pena Argentina 20-25 24 $7,420 $57,177
059 Danie Visser South Africa 30-32 32 $13,707 $56,153
060 Aaron Krickstein United States 21-17 17 $8,115 $52,465
061 Pablo Arraya Peru 27-37 38 $2,665 $50,904
062 Jeremy Bates Great Britain 29-30 31 $15,106 $50,202
063 Christian Bergstrom Sweden 1 23-18 19 $14,718 $49,954
064 Richey Reneberg United States 20-19 19 $13,719 $49,875
065 Alex Antonitsch Austria 40-34 38 $12,178 $48,450
066 Simon Youl Australia 1 24-29 30 $6,047 $45,249
067 Carl-Uwe Steeb Germany 26-25 26 $6,809 $44,880
068 Mark Dickson United States 1 37-31 32 $1,570 $44,245
069 Jordi Arrese Spain 25-34 34 $8,612 $42,030
070 Franco Davin Argentina 17-22 23 $7,420 $39,163
071 Alexander Volkov Russia 8-9 10 $18,028 $39,124
072 Jean-Philippe Fleurian France 10-19 19 $12,310 $37,999
073 Jimmy Brown United States 1 29-26 27 $5,501 $37,586
074 Magnus Gustafsson Sweden 1 21-15 16 $0 $36,960
075 Thomas Hogstedt Sweden 8-16 16 $8,970 $36,846
076 Javier Frana Argentina 2 33-26 30 $5,396 $33,539
077 Petr Korda Czechia 1 36-24 25 $695 $28,344
078 Michael Chang United States 1 9-4 5 $5,501 $25,681
079 Tomas Carbonell Spain 1 13-11 12 $5,565 $21,021
080 Patrick McEnroe United States 2 18-11 13 $1,500 $20,164
081 Gianluca Pozzi Italy 2 19-15 17 $5,501 $17,754
082 Diego Nargiso Italy 1 22-21 22 $0 $15,995
083 Marcelo Filippini Uruguay 2 23-12 15 $0 $15,874
084 Alberto Mancini Argentina 16-18 18 $0 $14,366
085 Shuzo Matsuoka Japan 12-14 14 $0 $12,008
086 Omar Camporese Italy 1 17-22 23 $0 $11,592
087 David Wheaton United States 4-6 6 $4,228 $10,549
088 Olivier Delaitre France 3-16 16 $3,360 $9,628
089 Arnaud Boetsch France 8-12 13 $3,857 $9,618
090 Jason Stoltenberg Australia 1 9-7 8 $2,144 $8,928
091 Andrei Olhovskiy Russia 7-10 10 $2,952 $8,306
092 Jeff Tarango United States 3-6 6 $875 $5,291
093 Jim Courier United States 4-6 6 $0 $3,563
094 Henrik Holm Sweden 1 5-5 6 $0 $2,727
095 Nicolas Pereira Venezuela 6-6 6 $0 $2,573
096 Michael Stich Germany 2-4 4 $0 $1,893
097 Brett Steven New Zealand 2-2 2 $0 $1,849
098 Lars Jonsson Sweden 0-1 1 $0 $1,487
099 Ilie Nastase Romania 0-2 2 $0 $1,293
100 Richard Fromberg Australia 5-2 2 $0 $1,136
101 Goran Ivanisevic Croatia 3-3 3 $0 $1,040
102 Gilbert Schaller Austria 0-4 4 $0 $1,021
103 Todd Woodbridge Australia 1 6-1 2 $0 $860

Where 1987 sits

Every season the tour has paid, in order

55 seasons

1987 is the 40th biggest season of the 55 on the chart.

Which countries won the 1987 money

The fifteen biggest flags on the 1987 list

28 countries paid

# Country Players Titles Share Prize money
01 United States 26 30 33.6% $5,464,871$5.5m
02 Sweden 11 32 24.0% $3,899,742$3.9m
03 Australia 8 9 5.9% $957,204
04 Spain 5 20 5.8% $943,144
05 Germany 4 8 4.1% $665,864
06 Argentina 6 7 3.8% $625,394
07 France 5 5 2.9% $475,168
08 Ecuador 1 3 2.7% $433,813
09 Switzerland 2 5 2.4% $382,698
10 South Africa 3 4 2.1% $340,086
11 Israel 2 5 1.7% $272,313
12 Brazil 2 5 1.4% $230,852
13 Austria 4 1.2% $200,304
14 Peru 2 2 1.0% $164,473
15 Russia 3 1 1.0% $160,410

28 countries had a player paid in 1987, and the top three of them took 63.4% of the money between them. A flag gets a link here where we hold two or more careers behind it.

Frequently asked questions

Who won the most prize money in tennis in 1987?

Ivan Lendl, $2,003,656 from 24 events, with 9 titles and a 90-13 record.

How much prize money did tennis pay out in 1987?

$16,275,258 across the 103 players on this list, the 40th biggest season of the 55 the list covers. The season is up 21.1% on 1986, and is the 40th biggest of the 55 seasons we hold.

How many tennis players earned a million dollars in 1987?

3 of them. The top ten took 51.2% of everything paid out that season.

What share of 1987 prize money came from the grand slams?

19.8%. The four majors paid $3,221,102 of the $16,275,258 won that season.

Which country won the most tennis prize money in 1987?

United States, $5,464,871 across 26 players on the list.

Is this prize money or total earnings?

Prize money: what the tour and the majors paid for results on court in 1987. Endorsements, appearance fees and exhibition money are a separate business and are not in these figures.

Where to next

The seasons either side, the eras, and the players who made 1987

The 1988 money list

Every season

By era

The 1987 top sixty

Elsewhere in tennis