The Spanish Carlos Alcaraz (22 years old, 1 ATP) and the Spanish Jannik Sinner (24 years old, 2 ATP) receive a generous amount to play in the ATP 500 tennis tournament in Doha: 1.2 million dollars each, according to sources cited by gazzetta.it.
Qatari organizers want the best players of the month at the ATP 500 tournament which starts today. And they took advantage of the ATP promotional fee rule, which supplements the prize pool.
The world’s top two players, Alcaraz and Sinner, three top-10 players (including Bublik) and seven top-20 players (including Medvedev, Rublev, Mensik and Khachanov) are in the draw for the Doha tournament.
Among those registered was, initially, the Serbian Novak Djokovic (38 years old, 3 ATP), ambassador of Qatar Airways, who eventually withdrew.
Qatar has a long-standing connection with tennis. Emir Al Thani, the owner of PSG football club, is a big fan of tennis and his right-hand man, Al Khelaifi, the chairman of the European champion, was a professional player, with Davis Cup appearances and a top ranking of 995 ATP.
In 2023, the Qatar Sports Investment fund acquired the World Padel Tour, but the small Gulf country has been present in the professional tennis circuit since 1993, attracting one star after another (Edberg, Federer, Nadal, Murray, Djokovic on the honor roll) and climbing, in 2025, in the category (from 250 ATP to 500 ATP), and in prize money from 1.4 to 2.8 million dollars.
Bonuses greater than the winner’s prize
Organizers of the Qatar ExxonMobil Open are taking full advantage of the ATP rule that allows 500- and 250-player tournaments to offer athletes compensation for professional services (so-called “promotional fees”). These extras are justified by the commercial appeal of the top players: the greater the appeal, the greater the compensation. In Doha, in the case of Alcaraz and Sinner, the bonus is about 1.2 million dollars each.
The top two in the ranking usually earn between $800,000 and $1 million, but the purchasing power of Qataris favors an increase. These are figures that exceed those offered by the ATP. In Doha, the winner will receive $529,945, while the runner-up will collect just $285,095.
Each athlete must play four 500-category tournaments to qualify for the year-end “bonus pool” awarded based on results. $3.1 million is at stake. Last year, Alcaraz earned $1.2 million from this fund, Sinner took nothing.
