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TENNIS · 160 PLAYERS PAID

The 1991 tennis prize money list

$43,913,452 won on court in 1991, split between 160 players. David Wheaton took $2,479,239 of it.

Every player the tour paid in 1991, 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 16.8% on 1990, and is the 36th biggest of the 55 seasons we hold.

PAID OUT $43.9m
TOP EARNER $2.5m
PLAYERS PAID 160
OVER $1M 9
FROM THE MAJORS 20.0%

The twenty biggest earners of 1991

Prize money won in the 1991 season

Top ten hold 39.2%

David Wheaton $2.5m Stefan Edberg $2.4m Pete Sampras $1.9m Ivan Lendl $1.9m Jim Courier $1.8m Michael Stich $1.7m Michael Chang $1.5m Guy Forget $1.4m Boris Becker $1.2m Andre Agassi $983k Jakob Hlasek $875k Anders Jarryd $755k Emilio Sanchez $672k Todd Woodbridge $667k Karel Novacek $650k Patrick McEnroe $628k John Fitzgerald $618k Petr Korda $579k Goran Ivanisevic $566k Magnus Gustafsson $539k

Ten players out of 160 took 39.2% 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

1991 against 1990, for the ten biggest earners of 1991

1990 to 1991

# Player 1990 1991 Change
01 David Wheaton United States $791,240 $2,479,239 +213.3%
02 Stefan Edberg Sweden $2,095,901 $2,363,575 +12.8%
03 Pete Sampras United States $2,900,057 $1,908,413 -34.2%
04 Ivan Lendl United States $1,445,742 $1,888,983 +30.7%
05 Jim Courier United States $437,390 $1,848,171 +322.5%
06 Michael Stich Germany $280,823 $1,670,116 +494.7%
07 Michael Chang United States $866,070 $1,461,730 +68.8%
08 Guy Forget France $638,358 $1,401,772 +119.6%
09 Boris Becker Germany $1,587,482 $1,228,708 -22.6%
10 Andre Agassi United States $1,741,382 $982,611 -43.6%

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 1990 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 1991

Ranked by prize money won that season

160 players

# Player Titles W-L Events From majors Prize money
001 David Wheaton United States 1 63-31 32 $179,439 $2,479,239$2.5m
002 Stefan Edberg Sweden 8 101-27 32 $637,765 $2,363,575$2.4m
003 Pete Sampras United States 4 76-26 29 $74,068 $1,908,413$1.9m
004 Ivan Lendl United States 3 73-28 32 $251,403 $1,888,983$1.9m
005 Jim Courier United States 4 84-28 30 $733,489 $1,848,171$1.8m
006 Michael Stich Germany 5 117-50 54 $645,779 $1,670,116$1.7m
007 Michael Chang United States 1 55-22 23 $93,385 $1,461,730$1.5m
008 Guy Forget France 7 92-35 47 $140,892 $1,401,772$1.4m
009 Boris Becker Germany 2 73-24 28 $622,148 $1,228,708
010 Andre Agassi United States 2 51-21 25 $289,681 $982,611
011 Jakob Hlasek Switzerland 2 90-48 54 $99,507 $875,362
012 Anders Jarryd Sweden 8 90-33 42 $308,969 $755,444
013 Emilio Sanchez Spain 8 106-45 53 $63,809 $672,071
014 Todd Woodbridge Australia 7 82-46 54 $115,632 $666,959
015 Karel Novacek Czechia 5 84-55 58 $67,945 $650,350
016 Patrick McEnroe United States 1 61-38 39 $138,294 $628,114
017 John Fitzgerald Australia 7 71-25 36 $272,748 $618,213
018 Petr Korda Czechia 4 73-42 47 $44,415 $578,970
019 Goran Ivanisevic Croatia 4 92-43 50 $71,494 $566,355
020 Magnus Gustafsson Sweden 5 75-29 33 $39,232 $538,792
021 Sergi Bruguera Spain 4 72-31 37 $27,125 $527,320
022 Goran Prpic Croatia 1 57-48 49 $72,282 $511,068
023 Paul Haarhuis Netherlands 4 86-50 56 $108,165 $412,082
024 Alexander Volkov Russia 1 54-37 38 $51,686 $404,046
025 Omar Camporese Italy 5 75-44 51 $60,552 $399,959
026 Derrick Rostagno United States 53-33 33 $74,049 $399,729
027 Andrei Cherkasov Russia 1 52-42 43 $51,897 $382,327
028 Jonas Svensson Sweden 1 36-33 36 $23,004 $347,659
029 Brad Gilbert United States 49-29 29 $40,718 $343,803
030 Scott Davis United States 4 68-49 53 $127,291 $341,711
031 Andrei Chesnokov Russia 1 36-25 26 $32,160 $337,810
032 Javier Sanchez Spain 5 86-56 62 $80,892 $336,292
033 Richey Reneberg United States 3 60-34 37 $32,641 $333,121
034 David Pate United States 4 70-45 48 $129,101 $331,861
035 Jimmy Connors United States 20-15 15 $136,339 $324,319
036 Aaron Krickstein United States 34-21 22 $67,775 $324,005
037 John McEnroe United States 1 47-24 26 $63,564 $321,209
038 Wayne Ferreira South Africa 2 66-45 50 $77,275 $311,900
039 Wally Masur Australia 3 60-45 49 $64,695 $301,160
040 Mark Woodforde Australia 5 66-47 53 $89,528 $298,180
041 Alberto Mancini Argentina 1 41-23 25 $37,760 $290,375
042 Jan Siemerink Netherlands 3 62-41 45 $56,849 $280,559
043 Jaime Yzaga Peru 1 28-19 21 $72,575 $279,190
044 Marc Rosset Switzerland 1 36-40 42 $27,473 $278,258
045 Todd Witsken United States 4 66-40 45 $49,036 $271,596
046 Francisco Clavet Spain 1 61-49 51 $68,414 $259,384
047 Carl-Uwe Steeb Germany 3 39-35 37 $47,728 $253,273
048 Jordi Arrese Spain 4 49-29 33 $13,375 $252,860
049 Jim Grabb United States 2 49-41 43 $40,148 $243,348
050 Horst Skoff Austria 41-36 36 $36,003 $239,168
051 Javier Frana Argentina 2 68-41 45 $108,481 $232,306
052 Richard Krajicek Netherlands 2 47-34 38 $65,025 $231,590
053 Gary Muller South Africa 2 56-51 53 $53,082 $213,592
054 MaliVai Washington United States 38-32 33 $40,638 $208,210
055 Kevin Curren United States 1 52-45 46 $24,986 $203,931
056 Tomas Carbonell Spain 2 48-57 59 $40,038 $198,403
057 Arnaud Boetsch France 1 36-30 35 $69,474 $197,844
058 Jason Stoltenberg Australia 1 49-48 51 $47,207 $195,459
059 Fabrice Santoro France 1 39-30 33 $43,857 $195,252
060 Christian Bergstrom Sweden 33-23 26 $54,104 $190,549
061 Thomas Muster Austria 2 40-29 31 $6,700 $189,840
062 Andres Gomez Ecuador 2 58-38 40 $12,000 $181,740
063 Guillermo Perez-Roldan Argentina 3 46-25 28 $6,700 $180,995
064 Nicklas Kulti Sweden 1 21-27 29 $30,037 $177,517
065 Jacco Eltingh Netherlands 4 49-45 49 $67,789 $176,969
066 Martin Jaite Argentina 1 34-32 34 $24,727 $172,827
067 Olivier Delaitre France 4 56-36 42 $20,587 $172,292
068 Luiz Mattar Brazil 2 56-52 56 $47,376 $171,228
069 Amos Mansdorf Israel 24-35 33 $18,928 $168,488
070 Cedric Pioline France 36-30 31 $34,265 $165,850
071 Ronald Agenor Haiti 1 26-31 32 $17,265 $164,885
072 Patrik Kuhnen Germany 38-37 37 $53,034 $161,479
073 Magnus Larsson Sweden 1 31-25 26 $51,525 $160,700
074 Guillaume Raoux France 25-34 34 $29,472 $160,182
075 Peter Lundgren Sweden 28-52 52 $42,767 $157,044
076 Horacio de la Pena Argentina 1 30-36 36 $10,200 $156,195
077 Richard Fromberg Australia 1 30-27 30 $29,654 $155,274
078 Renzo Furlan Italy 2 38-39 41 $17,210 $153,920
079 Christo Van Rensburg South Africa 4 57-36 40 $36,534 $152,979
080 Jean-Philippe Fleurian France 1 30-34 35 $40,438 $151,668
081 Stefano Pescosolido Italy 5 53-39 46 $18,733 $150,361
082 Gilad Bloom Israel 2 35-49 50 $35,212 $149,217
083 Gianluca Pozzi Italy 2 47-42 47 $12,904 $148,845
084 Carlos Costa Spain 4 56-38 42 $21,825 $143,585
085 Diego Nargiso Italy 3 57-49 56 $23,248 $142,898
086 Sergio Casal Spain 4 42-18 25 $7,934 $138,851
087 Jimmy Arias United States 38-33 33 $33,270 $138,710
088 Bryan Shelton United States 3 61-40 45 $18,337 $137,584
089 Michiel Schapers Netherlands 3 59-40 45 $29,245 $134,704
090 Franco Davin Argentina 20-20 20 $58,610 $133,870
091 Marcelo Filippini Uruguay 1 25-35 35 $11,265 $129,790
092 Shuzo Matsuoka Japan 1 33-25 26 $13,375 $126,790
093 Pat Cash Australia 23-18 19 $32,172 $126,167
094 Jeff Tarango United States 18-26 27 $27,210 $125,260
095 Jeremy Bates Great Britain 1 38-28 33 $35,660 $117,892
096 Henri Leconte France 1 28-19 26 $29,279 $110,399
097 Lars Jonsson Sweden 29-28 29 $26,003 $109,303
098 Danie Visser South Africa 1 41-27 35 $18,537 $108,670
099 Andrei Olhovskiy Russia 2 47-49 52 $30,359 $103,754
100 Simon Youl Australia 3 52-40 45 $24,015 $103,111
101 Libor Pimek Belgium 30-41 49 $16,784 $102,723
102 Thomas Hogstedt Sweden 15-30 31 $3,835 $99,110
103 Cassio Motta Brazil 2 38-34 41 $7,013 $96,861
104 Pablo Arraya Peru 1 40-44 45 $14,700 $96,542
105 Kelly Evernden New Zealand 30-45 44 $41,643 $94,198
106 Alex Antonitsch Austria 2 38-38 39 $5,044 $93,646
107 Diego Perez Uruguay 1 42-43 49 $18,571 $87,696
108 Todd Martin United States 21-18 21 $50,960 $86,949
109 Paolo Cane Italy 2 17-18 19 $5,044 $86,894
110 Henrik Holm Sweden 2 37-40 42 $20,416 $84,428
111 Slava Dosedel Czechia 12-36 39 $17,518 $78,043
112 Nicolas Pereira Venezuela 4 50-37 47 $4,263 $77,597
113 Marcos Ondruska South Africa 2 32-26 36 $24,325 $76,208
114 Daniel Vacek Czechia 34-35 37 $14,082 $75,156
115 Ramesh Krishnan India 22-26 29 $12,253 $71,723
116 Mats Wilander Sweden 11-11 11 $28,772 $69,967
117 Claudio Mezzadri Switzerland 1 27-22 27 $0 $69,025
118 Byron Black Zimbabwe 4 48-23 29 $3,513 $64,826
119 Sandon Stolle Australia 1 41-40 43 $16,739 $59,429
120 Martin Damm Czechia 3 51-38 43 $2,262 $49,504
121 Jimmy Brown United States 16-16 19 $10,000 $46,800
122 Johan Kriek United States 7-19 19 $6,675 $44,487
123 Grant Stafford South Africa 9-12 13 $10,000 $42,525
124 Jonathan Stark United States 1 21-12 15 $6,000 $41,072
125 Andrei Medvedev Ukraine 7-12 15 $0 $38,440
126 Mikael Pernfors Sweden 10-14 14 $6,000 $38,085
127 Paul Annacone United States 8-12 14 $17,407 $36,206
128 Thomas Enqvist Sweden 13-11 15 $0 $35,786
129 Brett Steven New Zealand 1 20-26 29 $0 $35,609
130 Alex O'Brien United States 1 13-7 9 $0 $19,150
131 Jay Berger United States 3-3 3 $10,004 $18,404
132 Bernd Karbacher Germany 1 17-14 20 $0 $17,351
133 Andrea Gaudenzi Italy 5-16 19 $0 $17,053
134 Marc-Kevin Goellner Germany 1 14-9 11 $0 $16,240
135 Leander Paes India 15-10 18 $0 $13,924
136 Fernando Meligeni Brazil 12-22 22 $0 $13,765
137 Sebastien Lareau Canada 5-5 8 $0 $13,760
138 Daniel Nestor Canada 7-12 15 $0 $11,855
139 David Prinosil Germany 8-5 6 $0 $10,805
140 Wayne Arthurs Australia 8-16 16 $1,209 $7,604
141 Greg Rusedski Great Britain 9-7 9 $0 $7,445
142 Karol Kucera Slovakia 1-6 6 $0 $6,565
143 Patrick Rafter Australia 5-6 8 $0 $6,235
144 Younes El Aynaoui Morocco 3-6 8 $0 $5,771
145 Jordi Burillo Spain 11-12 13 $0 $5,705
146 Filip Dewulf Belgium 5-9 8 $0 $5,595
147 Karim Alami Morocco 1-8 12 $0 $4,948
148 Marty Davis United States 4-4 4 $1,209 $4,354
149 Mikael Tillstrom Sweden 2-7 8 $0 $4,065
150 Hernan Gumy Argentina 5-12 12 $0 $3,705
151 Jonas Bjorkman Sweden 2-2 2 $0 $3,410
152 Gilbert Schaller Austria 3-6 6 $0 $3,330
153 Alberto Berasategui Spain 1-2 5 $0 $2,939
154 Andrei Pavel Romania 3-2 2 $0 $2,790
155 Bjorn Borg Sweden 0-1 1 $0 $2,690
156 Alex Corretja Spain 3-1 2 $0 $1,445
157 Hendrik Dreekmann Germany 0-3 3 $0 $1,225
158 Hicham Arazi Morocco 0-1 1 $0 $520
159 Kenneth Carlsen Denmark 0-1 1 $0 $520
160 Christian Ruud Norway 0-1 1 $0 $260

Where 1991 sits

Every season the tour has paid, in order

55 seasons

1991 is the 36th biggest season of the 55 on the chart.

Which countries won the 1991 money

The fifteen biggest flags on the 1991 list

35 countries paid

# Country Players Titles Share Prize money
01 United States 30 40 35.4% $15,543,080$15.5m
02 Sweden 17 26 11.7% $5,138,124$5.1m
03 Germany 8 12 7.6% $3,359,197$3.4m
04 France 8 15 5.8% $2,555,259$2.6m
05 Spain 11 32 5.8% $2,538,855$2.5m
06 Australia 11 28 5.8% $2,537,791$2.5m
07 Czechia 5 12 3.3% $1,432,023$1.4m
08 Netherlands 5 16 2.8% $1,235,904
09 Russia 4 5 2.8% $1,227,937
10 Switzerland 3 4 2.8% $1,222,645
11 Argentina 7 8 2.7% $1,170,273
12 Italy 7 19 2.5% $1,099,930
13 Croatia 2 5 2.5% $1,077,423
14 South Africa 6 11 2.1% $905,874
15 Austria 4 4 1.2% $525,984

35 countries had a player paid in 1991, and the top three of them took 54.7% 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 1991?

David Wheaton, $2,479,239 from 32 events, with 1 title and a 63-31 record.

How much prize money did tennis pay out in 1991?

$43,913,452 across the 160 players on this list, the 36th biggest season of the 55 the list covers. The season is up 16.8% on 1990, and is the 36th biggest of the 55 seasons we hold.

How many tennis players earned a million dollars in 1991?

9 of them. The top ten took 39.2% of everything paid out that season.

What share of 1991 prize money came from the grand slams?

20.0%. The four majors paid $8,777,728 of the $43,913,452 won that season.

Which country won the most tennis prize money in 1991?

United States, $15,543,080 across 30 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 1991. 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 1991

The 1990 money list · The 1992 money list

Every season

By era

The 1991 top sixty

Elsewhere in tennis