Djokovic, Federer in race to be first $100m man

NOVAK Djokovic and Roger Federer are poised to become the first $100 million men in tennis in 2016, in a gripping sub-plot to the new Grand Slam season.
No player in the history of the sport has broken through the $100 million on-court earnings barrier but world number one Djokovic and Federer, the number three, should reach the landmark next year.
Djokovic, 28, has just over $94 million in prize money while Federer, six years the Serb’s senior, has banked $97.3 million.



With $3.85 million on offer for the winner of Janu­ary’s Australian Open, the season’s first major, the veteran Swiss would be the first man to the magical number even if the odds are heavily stacked against a player who won the last of his 17 Grand Slam titles in 2012.
The staggering rewards for the modern player, all boosted by lucrative off-court earnings through sponsorship and endorsements, are a far cry from the heavyweights of the sport who starred in earlier eras.


Rod Laver, the last man to complete the calendar Grand Slam — something that eluded Djokovic courtesy of a French Open final loss in 2015 — ended his playing career with $1.5 million, still a huge sum by the stan­dards of the late 1960s.
John McEnroe earned $12.5 million while Federer’s hero, Pete Sampras banked $43 million before he retired in 2002.