French Open champs back to pre-pandemic pay; total prize money tops $50M

Paychecks for the two French Open singles champions will return to the pre-pandemic amount of 2.3 million euros each — about $2.5 million — and the total prize money is rising to a tournament-record 49.6 million euros — about $54 million.
The French tennis federation announced Friday what it will be offering at the clay-court Grand Slam event. Qualifying begins May 22; main-draw play starts May 28.
The title winners in singles will get the same pay as in 2019, which was the high mark in Paris. During the coronavirus pandemic, those prizes dropped to 1.6 million euros in 2020 and 1.4 million euros in 2021, before going back up to 2.2 million euros a year ago. Total prizes sank during that span, too, including to 34 million euros in 2021.
This year’s total represents a jump of more than 10% from 2022.
Losers in the first round of singles will get 69,000 euros — about $75,000 — which is a 50% hike from what they got in 2019, and an 11% increase from last year.
Losers in the first round of qualifying receive 16,000 euros — a little more than $17,000 — more thandouble what the 2019 payout was and up 14% from last year.
Money for wheelchair and quad tennis competitions rose 40% to 810,000 euros ($880,000), while women’s and men’s doubles payouts are 4% higher, including 590,000 euros ($640,000) to each winning pair.