How Roger Federer Took Home Nearly $13,000,000 in Prize Money From US Open Alone

Roger Federer is on a roll even after retirement, as he earned a whopping $95.1 million in the last 12 months according to Forbes. The Swiss maestro is the only tennis player in history to have made more than $1 billion from the sport without any inheritance. That journey began by winning a humungous amount of prize money from Grand Slams as a young, active player.

In the last 25 years, Roger Federer has been the most successful player at the US Open, winning the tournament 5 times. Federer won the hearts of New York City with some victories that are perhaps once-in-a-lifetime. Remarkably, from the US Open alone, the legend earned almost $13 million in prize money.

Federer became first non-American millionaire at US Open

It is well-known that over the last three decades especially, the US Open has been the Grand Slam that has offered the highest amount of prize money to players depending on their performances. While Roger Federer ended up earning nearly $130.59 million in his career as prize money from all his tournaments. So the US Open played a huge role in making Federer richer as nearly 1/10th of his career prize money came from New York City alone.

Roger Federer took his time before announcing himself on the ATP Tour. So between 2000 and 2003, Federer did not make it past the Round of 16, which is why he earned approximately $215,000 during that period. But from July 2003-July 2004, he had won 3 Grand Slam titles and became World No.1, which changed the course of his career.

So at the US Open 2004, Roger Federer was a force to reckon with and broke the American monopoly at the men’s singles event. He became the first player ever outside the United States to be awarded with a paycheck worth exactly $1 million from a single edition of the tournament. Federer had defeated his nemesis from Australia, Lleyton Hewitt in the final.

That began a historic run that lasted up till 2008. From 2004 until that year, Roger Federer took home an unheard of amount at the time, $7.1 million. In 2007 alone, Federer had won $2.4 million due to the an additional bonus from the US Open, since he ended up with the most number of points in the North American swing.

It could have title No.6 for Roger Federer in 2009 but he lost to the inspired Argentina player, Juan Martin del Potro in the final. That still fetched the Swiss star $800,000 since the US Open had increased the men’s winner’s prize money to $1.6 million that year.

Although 2010-2012 was a lean period considering Roger Federer’s standards, he still managed to earn $1.0875 million from the tournament in that period. This is because he played back-to-back semifinals in 2011 and 2012, co-incidentally losing to Novak Djokovic on both the occasions after having the advantage of 2 match points.

The US Open has been extremely kind to Roger Federer since he actually earned the highest amount in an edition without winning the championship title. It was in 2015 when Federer, against all odds at the age of 34 and with inconsistency of fitness and form, made it to the finals. Although he lost to Djokovic there again, Federer would have consoled himself surely with the $1.6 million cheque he was rewarded with.

As a result, between 2013 and 2015, Roger Federer bagged an impressive $2.56 million. While he did not play in the 2016 edition, he could manage to get past the quarterfinals between 2017 and 2019. This is why Federer managed to garnered a mere $1.23 million in that period. That was his last dance in the tournament as he did not feature in 2020 and 2021 either.

Roger Federer net worth and lifetime earnings

It is believed that the Roger Federer net worth figure is anywhere between $550-600 million as per Cosmopolitan, which is the amount Federer will earn from his ongoing sponsorship deal with Uniqlo alone by 2028. Out of the $95 million he earned last year, $18 million of those came from Swiss watch brand, Rolex alone as he is set to earn $9 million a year till 2026.

Some of the other brands he endorses are On Shoes, Lindt, Credit Suisse, Barilla, Mercedes-Benz, Moet & Chandon and Switzerland Tourism amongst others. He also has multiple houses in Zurich and Dubai respectively.