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TENNIS · 244 PLAYERS PAID

The 2008 tennis prize money list

$85,226,412 won on court in 2008, split between 244 players. Rafael Nadal took $6,773,776 of it.

Every player the tour paid in 2008, 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 11.3% on 2007, and is the 19th biggest of the 55 seasons we hold.

PAID OUT $85.2m
TOP EARNER $6.8m
PLAYERS PAID 244
OVER $1M 13
FROM THE MAJORS 35.6%

The twenty biggest earners of 2008

Prize money won in the 2008 season

Top ten hold 36.8%

Rafael Nadal $6.8m Roger Federer $5.9m Novak Djokovic $5.7m Andy Murray $3.7m Nikolay Davydenko $2.3m Jo-Wilfried Tsonga $1.7m Gilles Simon $1.4m Andy Roddick $1.3m Juan Martin del Potro $1.3m David Ferrer $1.2m David Nalbandian $1.1m Robin Soderling $1.1m James Blake $1.0m Stan Wawrinka $988k Fernando Verdasco $978k Michael Llodra $899k Tommy Robredo $893k Gael Monfils $890k Igor Andreev $885k Dmitry Tursunov $883k

Ten players out of 244 took 36.8% 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

2008 against 2007, for the ten biggest earners of 2008

2007 to 2008

# Player 2007 2008 Change
01 Rafael Nadal Spain $5,646,935 $6,773,776 +20.0%
02 Roger Federer Switzerland $10,130,620 $5,886,880 -41.9%
03 Novak Djokovic Serbia $3,927,700 $5,689,078 +44.8%
04 Andy Murray Great Britain $880,905 $3,705,650 +320.7%
05 Nikolay Davydenko Russia $2,051,775 $2,317,085 +12.9%
06 Jo-Wilfried Tsonga France $318,615 $1,695,139 +432.0%
07 Gilles Simon France $560,655 $1,425,490 +154.3%
08 Andy Roddick United States $1,532,070 $1,337,890 -12.7%
09 Juan Martin del Potro Argentina $393,810 $1,322,499 +235.8%
10 David Ferrer Spain $1,955,252 $1,170,009 -40.2%

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 2007 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 2008

Ranked by prize money won that season

244 players

# Player Titles W-L Events From majors Prize money
001 Rafael Nadal Spain 9 104-21 33 $3,934,345 $6,773,776$6.8m
002 Roger Federer Switzerland 5 83-17 24 $3,382,109 $5,886,880$5.9m
003 Novak Djokovic Serbia 4 77-22 28 $1,992,508 $5,689,078$5.7m
004 Andy Murray Great Britain 5 72-26 33 $1,272,210 $3,705,650$3.7m
005 Nikolay Davydenko Russia 3 73-26 31 $238,699 $2,317,085$2.3m
006 Jo-Wilfried Tsonga France 3 50-23 26 $664,132 $1,695,139$1.7m
007 Gilles Simon France 3 59-40 42 $186,558 $1,425,490$1.4m
008 Andy Roddick United States 3 61-21 25 $238,166 $1,337,890
009 Juan Martin del Potro Argentina 4 59-23 27 $294,463 $1,322,499
010 David Ferrer Spain 2 62-32 36 $463,137 $1,170,009
011 David Nalbandian Argentina 2 61-26 33 $148,286 $1,106,217
012 Robin Soderling Sweden 4 58-28 32 $119,505 $1,059,969
013 James Blake United States 63-33 34 $269,698 $1,027,142
014 Stan Wawrinka Switzerland 1 53-27 32 $267,909 $988,431
015 Fernando Verdasco Spain 1 76-47 53 $321,326 $977,959
016 Michael Llodra France 5 59-37 44 $281,672 $899,479
017 Tommy Robredo Spain 2 59-39 42 $255,185 $893,211
018 Gael Monfils France 1 39-25 26 $503,108 $889,582
019 Igor Andreev Russia 1 55-44 44 $203,128 $884,534
020 Dmitry Tursunov Russia 5 64-43 49 $275,464 $882,949
021 Feliciano Lopez Spain 51-47 50 $308,026 $865,779
022 Tomas Berdych Czechia 2 54-37 39 $187,869 $859,108
023 Nicolas Almagro Spain 2 46-26 29 $323,678 $851,019
024 Mikhail Youzhny Russia 3 52-36 39 $317,853 $847,944
025 Mardy Fish United States 1 48-34 36 $262,286 $847,691
026 Daniel Nestor Canada 5 58-21 27 $382,740 $840,538
027 Marat Safin Russia 31-32 32 $465,018 $779,513
028 Philipp Kohlschreiber Germany 3 54-29 34 $149,108 $775,091
029 Fernando Gonzalez Chile 2 52-30 35 $374,579 $759,454
030 Radek Stepanek Czechia 43-36 38 $223,336 $756,793
031 Richard Gasquet France 1 54-28 30 $193,643 $750,952
032 Rainer Schuettler Germany 2 46-40 41 $450,358 $745,478
033 Ivo Karlovic Croatia 1 42-37 39 $142,626 $738,603
034 Jarkko Nieminen Finland 48-54 56 $334,833 $710,488
035 Marin Cilic Croatia 1 45-32 34 $258,605 $677,846
036 Paul-Henri Mathieu France 1 46-41 41 $271,363 $672,772
037 Simone Bolelli Italy 1 57-53 54 $182,914 $657,829
038 Andreas Seppi Italy 2 51-50 53 $170,823 $653,278
039 Nicolas Kiefer Germany 27-28 28 $91,380 $651,424
040 Luis Horna Peru 5 70-47 50 $350,682 $618,951
041 Mario Ancic Croatia 1 43-23 27 $247,419 $600,327
042 Jonas Bjorkman Sweden 4 62-36 39 $193,502 $580,733
043 Julien Benneteau France 1 52-40 41 $197,742 $576,414
044 Jurgen Melzer Austria 2 72-56 59 $219,940 $574,641
045 Janko Tipsarevic Serbia 1 38-36 37 $227,149 $573,084
046 Albert Montanes Spain 3 53-48 51 $129,197 $561,134
047 Juan Monaco Argentina 2 54-34 36 $142,367 $554,129
048 Arnaud Clement France 2 48-38 41 $353,285 $552,506
049 Sam Querrey United States 1 34-43 43 $197,581 $546,835
050 Steve Darcis Belgium 1 40-40 40 $134,103 $534,044
051 Marc Gicquel France 2 58-45 47 $203,775 $515,479
052 Ernests Gulbis Latvia 1 30-24 26 $289,805 $511,457
053 Ivan Ljubicic Croatia 1 36-29 30 $154,879 $510,744
054 Fabrice Santoro France 2 44-36 38 $138,342 $509,789
055 Jose Acasuso Argentina 1 47-44 47 $101,908 $506,638
056 Potito Starace Italy 2 51-45 48 $74,072 $504,184
057 Igor Kunitsyn Russia 2 72-50 53 $133,534 $502,168
058 Victor Hanescu Romania 2 38-35 38 $132,248 $491,447
059 Mischa Zverev Germany 2 48-50 51 $130,964 $476,144
060 Carlos Moya Spain 33-25 25 $69,822 $475,311
061 Marcel Granollers Spain 3 76-60 61 $143,635 $474,779
062 Pablo Cuevas Uruguay 1 51-44 45 $285,036 $473,895
063 Thomas Johansson Sweden 34-35 33 $113,408 $473,294
064 Agustin Calleri Argentina 2 47-42 44 $133,467 $454,747
065 Nicolas Mahut France 1 42-54 55 $125,488 $444,791
066 Guillermo Canas Argentina 1 37-39 38 $73,978 $413,991
067 Florent Serra France 1 40-40 40 $170,746 $412,643
068 Guillermo Garcia-Lopez Spain 1 45-49 49 $176,887 $405,030
069 Viktor Troicki Serbia 54-39 41 $162,880 $399,859
070 Robby Ginepri United States 32-28 28 $162,211 $395,222
071 Juan Carlos Ferrero Spain 23-15 15 $132,450 $394,152
072 Olivier Rochus Belgium 30-39 38 $130,757 $365,593
073 Leander Paes India 1 47-27 28 $185,182 $363,807
074 Lleyton Hewitt Australia 28-16 20 $242,547 $357,877
075 Nicolas Lapentti Ecuador 1 37-32 37 $111,163 $338,624
076 Marcos Baghdatis Cyprus 25-19 21 $165,921 $320,778
077 Jeremy Chardy France 1 42-40 41 $186,023 $318,924
078 Tommy Haas Germany 19-16 16 $85,589 $313,898
079 Dudi Sela Israel 1 36-42 44 $97,805 $312,059
080 Michael Berrer Germany 1 30-36 37 $88,252 $307,604
081 Kei Nishikori Japan 3 44-22 25 $106,102 $303,270
082 Filippo Volandri Italy 2 30-29 30 $69,634 $291,585
083 Fabio Fognini Italy 2 39-33 34 $68,641 $284,521
084 Hyung-Taik Lee South Korea 2 31-27 30 $118,658 $278,035
085 Kristof Vliegen Belgium 5 51-33 37 $87,813 $272,208
086 Juan Ignacio Chela Argentina 20-17 18 $70,520 $265,792
087 Benjamin Becker Germany 35-43 43 $76,423 $265,676
088 John Isner United States 2 42-40 42 $103,619 $264,575
089 Vincent Spadea United States 2 46-36 38 $105,855 $262,779
090 Teymuraz Gabashvili Russia 4 59-47 51 $25,996 $260,491
091 Sergiy Stakhovsky Ukraine 5 79-39 49 $34,223 $252,565
092 Gilles Muller Luxembourg 2 43-33 36 $168,885 $245,711
093 Robin Haase Netherlands 1 35-26 28 $82,824 $237,055
094 Donald Young United States 1 32-37 38 $83,581 $233,982
095 Maximo Gonzalez Argentina 3 64-47 50 $115,229 $227,341
096 Sebastien Grosjean France 15-25 25 $122,039 $221,747
097 Thomaz Bellucci Brazil 5 62-35 39 $91,320 $221,123
098 Yen-Hsun Lu Chinese Taipei 3 59-34 38 $72,550 $217,031
099 Carlos Berlocq Argentina 1 36-42 43 $78,528 $215,110
100 Andrey Golubev Kazakhstan 2 52-39 41 $44,488 $214,958
101 Kevin Anderson South Africa 2 66-40 44 $76,041 $201,670
102 Max Mirnyi Belarus 2 38-36 39 $36,754 $197,482
103 Xavier Malisse Belgium 3 31-25 29 $58,163 $183,448
104 Nicolas Massu Chile 2 60-40 45 $36,350 $180,128
105 Pablo Andujar Spain 2 57-44 45 $60,962 $176,813
106 Christophe Rochus Belgium 2 65-35 37 $25,871 $176,621
107 Marcelo Melo Brazil 4 45-26 32 $40,467 $174,545
108 Alejandro Falla Colombia 3 30-27 30 $87,683 $166,418
109 Martin Damm Czechia 1 26-22 23 $47,659 $163,745
110 Bruno Soares Brazil 3 54-34 37 $89,314 $161,226
111 Dominik Hrbaty Slovakia 28-40 41 $81,862 $158,914
112 Alberto Martin Spain 6 92-46 52 $10,826 $154,992
113 Jamie Murray Great Britain 1 33-36 37 $30,365 $151,543
114 Edouard Roger-Vasselin France 1 44-49 50 $59,164 $150,311
115 Rajeev Ram United States 4 65-50 53 $69,570 $144,599
116 Bjorn Phau Germany 2 64-41 43 $32,683 $140,027
117 Ruben Ramirez Hidalgo Spain 3 89-55 57 $11,687 $138,629
118 Daniel Gimeno-Traver Spain 3 73-41 44 $0 $127,991
119 Rohan Bopanna India 1 43-39 42 $38,083 $122,853
120 Filip Polasek Slovakia 4 57-30 37 $26,094 $121,481
121 Denis Istomin Uzbekistan 4 76-50 57 $30,078 $116,791
122 Santiago Giraldo Colombia 1 53-42 41 $25,531 $115,976
123 Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi Pakistan 3 53-51 53 $46,561 $115,954
124 Adrian Mannarino France 3 61-36 38 $36,632 $114,949
125 Stefan Koubek Austria 17-18 18 $48,836 $111,415
126 Lukasz Kubot Poland 10 83-43 53 $17,370 $101,694
127 Mikhail Kukushkin Kazakhstan 2 62-42 44 $9,037 $96,370
128 Florian Mayer Germany 11-19 19 $24,882 $87,714
129 Leonardo Mayer Argentina 4 73-44 48 $8,819 $84,684
130 Lukas Rosol Czechia 2 61-44 46 $19,645 $79,922
131 Guillermo Coria Argentina 7-16 16 $22,531 $77,454
132 Matwe Middelkoop Netherlands 2 62-51 54 $18,725 $66,565
133 Michael Russell United States 16-18 18 $26,962 $64,582
134 Paolo Lorenzi Italy 5 61-54 59 $17,158 $60,199
135 Younes El Aynaoui Morocco 2 24-11 13 $0 $59,882
136 Lukas Lacko Slovakia 20-42 41 $26,032 $59,599
137 Fernando Vicente Spain 36-47 47 $6,310 $58,563
138 Gustavo Kuerten Brazil 2-9 9 $27,813 $56,913
139 Horacio Zeballos Argentina 2 82-60 62 $0 $51,532
140 Jean-Julien Rojer Netherlands 3 54-35 38 $0 $47,279
141 Mariano Puerta Argentina 2 31-29 31 $0 $44,988
142 Philipp Oswald Austria 3 86-55 58 $0 $42,752
143 Andrei Pavel Romania 1-7 6 $24,882 $42,742
144 Alexandr Dolgopolov Ukraine 1 49-31 32 $13,100 $35,044
145 Ramon Delgado Paraguay 1 51-32 36 $0 $34,050
146 Thomas Fabbiano Italy 6 64-45 50 $0 $33,458
147 Illya Marchenko Ukraine 51-39 40 $0 $31,322
148 Ricardas Berankis Lithuania 1 44-28 29 $8,000 $30,681
149 Bohdan Ulihrach Czechia 15-15 15 $5,843 $30,379
150 Juan Sebastian Cabal Colombia 3 44-32 34 $0 $28,570
151 Ivan Dodig Croatia 2 52-38 39 $0 $26,393
152 Matthew Ebden Australia 4 89-52 56 $2,496 $24,241
153 Mariano Zabaleta Argentina 0-3 3 $17,291 $22,581
154 Andrea Arnaboldi Italy 3 62-51 54 $0 $22,468
155 Evgeny Donskoy Russia 2 28-22 24 $0 $22,156
156 Daniel Dutra da Silva Brazil 3 53-33 37 $0 $21,468
157 Peter Gojowczyk Germany 6 58-40 46 $0 $21,242
158 Ryan Harrison United States 11-19 18 $8,000 $20,262
159 Antony Dupuis France 8-12 12 $14,488 $20,224
160 Austin Krajicek United States 1 12-8 9 $18,500 $20,182
161 Grigor Dimitrov Bulgaria 4 36-25 29 $0 $19,967
162 Roman Jebavy Czechia 6 96-45 50 $0 $17,711
163 Joao Sousa Portugal 2 42-38 41 $0 $16,613
164 Yuichi Sugita Japan 5 54-25 31 $0 $16,531
165 Raven Klaasen South Africa 4 54-25 30 $0 $15,596
166 Attila Balazs Hungary 7 77-28 34 $0 $15,369
167 Roberto Bautista Agut Spain 3 48-35 38 $0 $14,689
168 Daniel Evans Great Britain 4 44-31 35 $0 $14,600
169 Andrej Martin Slovakia 64-50 50 $0 $13,827
170 Gastao Elias Portugal 1 38-35 37 $0 $13,799
171 Albert Ramos-Vinolas Spain 2 65-43 45 $0 $12,056
172 Nikola Mektic Croatia 3 53-42 45 $0 $11,820
173 Raemon Sluiter Netherlands 2-4 4 $0 $11,497
174 Benoit Paire France 36-38 38 $3,116 $11,466
175 Taylor Dent United States 2-5 5 $0 $10,700
176 Fabrice Martin France 6 72-32 38 $0 $9,809
177 Andres Molteni Argentina 7 75-44 51 $0 $9,759
178 Martin Klizan Slovakia 34-35 34 $0 $9,666
179 Facundo Bagnis Argentina 4 65-49 53 $0 $9,518
180 Bernard Tomic Australia 16-16 16 $4,983 $8,926
181 Guido Pella Argentina 4 58-32 36 $0 $8,191
182 Vasek Pospisil Canada 3 37-29 32 $0 $8,098
183 John Millman Australia 1 34-30 31 $0 $7,653
184 David Goffin Belgium 2 39-20 22 $0 $7,573
185 Malek Jaziri Tunisia 2 30-28 31 $0 $7,430
186 Milos Raonic Canada 2 21-16 18 $0 $6,394
187 Marco Trungelliti Argentina 2 31-32 34 $0 $6,132
188 Filip Krajinovic Serbia 24-21 21 $0 $6,095
189 Cedrik-Marcel Stebe Germany 14-12 12 $0 $5,431
190 Radu Albot Moldova 1 39-36 37 $0 $5,346
191 Federico Delbonis Argentina 30-35 35 $0 $5,061
192 Gaston Gaudio Argentina 0-2 2 $0 $4,770
193 Jan-Michael Gambill United States 6-9 9 $0 $4,385
194 Steven Diez Canada 14-27 27 $0 $4,045
195 Treat Huey Philippines 4 37-18 22 $0 $3,983
196 Yuki Bhambri India 13-12 12 $0 $3,970
197 Ariel Behar Uruguay 13-27 27 $0 $2,980
198 Pedro Sousa Portugal 11-10 10 $0 $2,724
199 Dusan Lajovic Serbia 1 14-19 20 $0 $2,623
200 Mohamed Safwat Egypt 11-20 20 $0 $2,602
201 Prajnesh Gunneswaran India 5-11 11 $0 $1,919
202 Denis Kudla United States 3-5 5 $0 $1,774
203 Henri Laaksonen Switzerland 2-5 5 $0 $1,710
204 Marcelo Arevalo El Salvador 7-21 21 $0 $1,654
205 Tomislav Brkic Bosnia and Herzegovina 1 12-10 11 $0 $1,582
206 Nikola Cacic Serbia 1 11-11 12 $0 $1,579
207 Lorenzo Giustino Italy 5-10 10 $0 $1,572
208 Nikoloz Basilashvili Georgia 4-5 5 $0 $1,570
209 Michael Venus New Zealand 6-7 6 $0 $1,426
210 Blaz Rola Slovenia 2-5 5 $0 $1,375
211 Emilio Gomez Ecuador 4-8 8 $0 $1,356
212 Federico Gaio Italy 6-9 9 $0 $1,336
213 John-Patrick Smith Australia 2-3 2 $0 $1,180
214 Guido Andreozzi Argentina 3-11 11 $0 $1,072
215 Paul Goldstein United States 0-1 1 $0 $1,000
216 Aleksandr Nedovyesov Kazakhstan 4-1 1 $0 $860
217 Alessandro Giannessi Italy 6-7 7 $0 $781
218 Jan-Lennard Struff Germany 7-5 5 $0 $656
219 Tennys Sandgren United States 2-6 6 $0 $638
220 Jeff Tarango United States 1 5-2 3 $0 $635
221 James Duckworth Australia 2-3 3 $0 $611
222 Aljaz Bedene Slovenia 3-5 5 $0 $498
223 Yannick Hanfmann Germany 3-3 3 $0 $498
224 Lars Burgsmuller Germany 3-4 4 $0 $460
225 Marton Fucsovics Hungary 1-3 3 $0 $436
226 Roberto Quiroz Ecuador 1-6 6 $0 $416
227 Andrea Collarini Argentina 2-6 6 $0 $408
228 Albano Olivetti France 2-2 2 $0 $371
229 Stefano Travaglia Italy 1-4 4 $0 $318
230 Paolo Cane Italy 0-2 2 $0 $311
231 Davide Sanguinetti Italy 2-3 3 $0 $300
232 Pablo Carreno Busta Spain 0-2 2 $0 $294
233 Renzo Olivo Argentina 0-4 4 $0 $236
234 Steve Johnson United States 1-1 1 $0 $200
235 Jason Kubler Australia 0-1 1 $0 $176
236 Thiago Monteiro Brazil 0-4 4 $0 $176
237 Neal Skupski Great Britain 2-2 2 $0 $159
238 Gianluca Pozzi Italy 0-1 1 $0 $157
239 Jordi Arrese Spain 0-1 1 $0 $157
240 Joao Domingues Portugal 1-1 1 $0 $135
241 Omar Camporese Italy 0-1 1 $0 $135
242 Jason Jung Chinese Taipei 0-4 4 $0 $118
243 Kevin Krawietz Germany 0-2 2 $0 $118
244 Pierre-Hugues Herbert France 0-3 3 $0 $118

Where 2008 sits

Every season the tour has paid, in order

55 seasons

2008 is the 19th biggest season of the 55 on the chart.

Which countries won the 2008 money

The fifteen biggest flags on the 2008 list

57 countries paid

# Country Players Titles Share Prize money
01 Spain 20 42 17.0% $14,526,343$14.5m
02 France 21 34 12.0% $10,192,955$10.2m
03 Switzerland 3 6 8.1% $6,877,021$6.9m
04 Serbia 6 7 7.8% $6,672,318$6.7m
05 Russia 8 20 7.6% $6,496,840$6.5m
06 Argentina 23 41 6.3% $5,392,850$5.4m
07 United States 19 16 6.1% $5,185,073$5.2m
08 Great Britain 4 10 4.5% $3,871,952$3.9m
09 Germany 15 16 4.4% $3,791,461$3.8m
10 Croatia 6 9 3.0% $2,565,733$2.6m
11 Italy 16 23 2.9% $2,512,432$2.5m
12 Sweden 3 8 2.5% $2,113,996$2.1m
13 Czechia 6 11 2.2% $1,907,658$1.9m
14 Belgium 6 13 1.8% $1,539,487$1.5m
15 Chile 2 4 1.1% $939,582

57 countries had a player paid in 2008, and the top three of them took 37.1% 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 2008?

Rafael Nadal, $6,773,776 from 33 events, with 9 titles and a 104-21 record.

How much prize money did tennis pay out in 2008?

$85,226,412 across the 244 players on this list, the 19th biggest season of the 55 the list covers. The season is up 11.3% on 2007, and is the 19th biggest of the 55 seasons we hold.

How many tennis players earned a million dollars in 2008?

13 of them. The top ten took 36.8% of everything paid out that season.

What share of 2008 prize money came from the grand slams?

35.6%. The four majors paid $30,378,534 of the $85,226,412 won that season.

Which country won the most tennis prize money in 2008?

Spain, $14,526,343 across 20 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 2008. 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 2008

The 2007 money list · The 2009 money list

Every season

By era

The 2008 top sixty

Elsewhere in tennis