How many tennis stars made the top 100 highest paid athletes list: Even Carlos Alcaraz is nowhere near top 10

The 2025 edition of Sportico’s list of the world’s 100 highest-paid athletes has once again highlighted how the financial landscape of global sport is changing.

With only a handful of tennis stars making the cut, even the brightest young names in the game are still far from breaking into the top ten.

While tennis has long produced global icons known for both their prize money and brand power, the latest rankings reflect how sports like football, basketball, and golf now dominate the highest earnings brackets.

The figures reveal that even the next generation of stars, such as Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner, have yet to match the financial might of names like Lionel Messi, LeBron James, and Kylian Mbappe.

Tennis players on Sportico’s top 100 list

According to Sportico’s annual rankings, two current tennis players feature in the 2025 list of the world’s 100 highest-paid athletes, Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner.

Both players represent the new face of men’s tennis, yet their combined earnings still fall short of the sport’s previous financial peak in the era of Roger Federer, Novak Djokovic, and Rafael Nadal.

Carlos Alcaraz is ranked 35th overall with total earnings of $57.8 million. The Spaniard earned $21.8 million from prize money and $36 million through endorsements and commercial partnerships.

Jannik Sinner follows at 50th place with total earnings of $50.1 million. The Italian, who has quickly risen into the world’s top three, secured $25.1 million in on-court winnings and an additional $25 million from sponsorships and endorsements.

The presence of both Alcaraz and Sinner in the top 100 underscores tennis’s continued global appeal, even as the sport competes financially with emerging markets in football, golf, and combat sports.

Yet their placement outside the top 30 shows how challenging it remains for tennis stars to rival the astronomical sums seen in team sports and franchise-driven leagues.

Tennis stars still trail global sports giants

The 2025 Sportico list is dominated by athletes from football, the NBA, and the rapidly expanding golf circuit, where record-breaking contracts and sponsorship deals have inflated total earnings.

The highest-ranked tennis player, Alcaraz, sits twenty-five spots below the top ten, a reminder that the sport’s economic peak in the Federer–Nadal–Djokovic era has yet to be replicated by the new generation.

Still, both Alcaraz and Sinner are on track to become defining figures of the next decade, combining consistent performances on the court with ever-growing commercial reach.

If their trajectory continues, future lists could see tennis regain a stronger foothold among the world’s highest earners, but for now, the sport’s young stars remain just outside the elite financial tier.