Roland Garros is one of the most prestigious tennis tournaments in the world. Every year, tennis players take to the clay courts and compete for the trophy and the ranking points that come along with it. And as we all know, there are more than just ranking points up for grabs for the participating players. Being one of the four Grand Slam events in tennis, Roland Garros also offers the winners one of the largest pay checks in tennis. The French Open Prize Money for the 2020 edition stands at an impressive 1.6 million euros for each of the winners of the singles events.
Roland Garros Prize Money 2020 Breakdown
All participating players get a piece of the total tournament prize fund of 38 million euros. The table below shows the distribution of the prize money by round for the 2020 French Open event.
Roland Garros Prize Money 2020 Compared to 2019
As was expected due to the impact of the Covid 19 Pandemic, the total prize fund for Roland Garros 2020 has been reduced significantly. To be precise, the total prize money for the tournament was down 10.93% compared to 2019. That being said, the reduction in prize money was focused mainly on the upper-level of the tournament. In an effort to provide more financial support to lower ranked players, the prize money for qualifying stages and initial round of the tournament actually saw significant increases, which seems to have been well received by the tennis community. Below is a comparison between the French Open prize money for the 2020 event and the 2019 event.
French Open Prize Money Compared to other events
So we know that the French Open is one of the highest paying events in tennis, but how does it stack up against the other Grand Slams? The answer is not so well. In fact, Roland Garros offers the smallest amount of prize money out of the four Grand Slams. This is explained by the fact that the tournament capacity of the Paris based venue is quite a bit smaller than at the other Grand Slam events. Fewer ticket sales means less overall revenue, which in turn means less prize money.
French Open Prize Money Through The Years
Even with a sizeable reduction in the singles prize money for the 2020 event, 1.6 million euros is still an incredible amount of money for a single event. But that hasn’t always been the case. We all know that tournament prize money has increased dramatically over the years, not just in tennis but in every other sport too. So, what does that progression look like at Roland Garros?
Going back to the beginnings of the Open Era in tennis, prize money was an insignificant fraction of what it is today. In 1968, the male winner received just 15000 Francs and the female winner received just a third of that, taking home 5000 Francs. To put that into context, that would be the equivalent of the male winner taking home roughly 2286 euros and the female winner taking home approximately 762 euros. [1]
Of course, as the tournament grew in popularity and viewership, so did the tournament prize money. Since the introduction of live broadcasting of the event in the mid 70s, the yearly prize money has skyrocketed. In 2007, the tournament singles prize money reached the 1 million euro mark for the first time ever. Not even 10 years later, the prize money had more than doubled, reaching the 2 million euro mark in 2016. In 2019, the tournament offered the largest amount of prize money in the history of the event, with each of the singles winners collecting a hefty 2.3 million euro cheque.
But did you know that the male and female winners haven’t always been payed the same?In fact, it wasn’t until the 2006 edition of the French Open that the event offered equal prize money to both men and women. While it wasn’t the last Grand Slam to introduce pay parity between men and women (Wimbledon), it certainly wasn’t the first. Equal pay was introduced at the US Open back in 1973, meaning it took the French Open organisers 33 years longer than their American counterparts.
The table below shows the singles prize money for both men and women for every event going back to 1968. The prize money for the tournament before 2001 was of course noted in French Francs. In order to provide a comparison, an approximation of the value of the prize money in Euros has been used. [1]
French Open Historic Prize Money
French Open Prize Money 2019
French Open Prize Money 2018
French Open Prize Money 2017
French Open Prize Money 2016
French Open Prize Money 2015
French Open Prize Money 2014
Notes:
[1] Currency conversion: in order to establish a comparison between the value of the French Franc and the Euro, the Franc to Euro conversion rate available of 6.55957 FRF to 1 Euro in 1999 was used. Though this is not the most accurate form of conversion, it gives an approximate estimation.
Sources:
https://www.rolandgarros.com/en-us/ for historic prize money data.
Featured Image by Benh LIEU SONG via Flickr
