The ledgers of tennis history has inked yet another major footnote, as Novak Djokovic officially becomes the first player to cross the $150 million threshold in career earnings.
Heading into the second week of Wimbledon, Serbia’s representative within the Big Three secured a straight-set victory against Denis Kudla in the third round. Effectively, this means the minimum sum of cash old Djoker will take home amounts to £181,000 / AU$333,331 – pushing his $149.8 million career total beyond $150 million (USD).
According to Spotrac, Swiss counterpart Roger Federer is trailing Djokovic by a healthy margin with just a touch below US$130 million, to his name while Spaniard Rafael Nadal follows closely behind with US$125 million. From there, the rankings drops off considerably: Andy Murray with US$61 million, Peter Sampras with US$43 million, and so forth.
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Of course, all of the aforementioned names have cashed in and will continue to cash in even bigger endorsement bucks outside of the court, Feds himself having joined the three-comma club relatively recently thanks to his clean-cut public image. Who knows… with a little more time, and an extended run of dominance, we might see Novak Djokovic hitting the capital B in addition to retaining professional tennis’ highest career earnings total (fun fact: he holds 5/10 of the highest single-seasons in terms of prize money).
Currently, Novak Djokovic is just a single Grand Slam title shy of joining both Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal in a three-way deadlock for the all-time record (20); which could happen soon enough, given how he’s heavily favoured to be last man standing at Centre Court.
“It’s a privilege to break records in the sport that I truly love,” Djokovic said in an interview after besting Cristian Garin.
“I’m devoted to this sport as much as I think anybody out there on the tour. I just try to do my best. I am aware that there are many records on the line. They do inspire me to play my best tennis.”
