For the first time ever, more women than men make up tennis’ top-10 highest-paid players over the past 12 months, according to Forbes.

The sport’s leading earners collected a combined $333m (£245m) over the period, which is 17% higher than the $285m (£210m recorded in 2025) and only slightly below the $343m (£252.5m) total from 2020.

Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz remain the financial heavyweights despite both missing key Grand Slam events in 2026. Sinner is absent from the 2026 US Open, while Alcaraz was injured for the French Open and Wimbledon, yet the two still sit at the top of the earnings table.

Serena Williams, now 44 and away from the sport for nearly four years, is still in the top three thanks largely to her commercial portfolio. She is listed ahead of Novak Djokovic, with off-court income continuing to drive her position on the ranking.

World No 1 Aryna Sabalenka and two-time Grand Slam winner Coco Gauff complete the top five. Gauff’s value away from the court remains especially strong.

Serena’s wider financial profile remains striking. Forbes reports her net worth at $400m (£295m), making her the world’s richest woman to have built her fortune primarily as an athlete. She has been with Nike for 23 years and also has deals with Heineken, Factor, and Ro, where she became the face of a campaign focused on GLP-1 weight loss medications.

That commercial strength helps explain why she leads all players in off-court earnings at $40m (£29.5m). Alcaraz follows on $38m (£28m), with Sinner next on $35m (£26m).

At the other end of the scale, Elena Rybakina and Alexander Zverev post more modest off-court figures of $6m (£4.4m) and $5m (£3.7m). Qinwen Zheng also stands out for endorsement income despite dropping outside the world’s top 100 after elbow surgery just over a year ago.

Naomi Osaka does not appear in the list, while Alex Eala, although highly marketable, is still some way from breaking through into this group. The 21-year-old is nearing $2m in on-court prize money this year, but remains outside the top 10 for now.

Patrick Mouratoglou has raised the most intriguing question around Carlos Alcaraz’s return to the US Open: not how high the Spaniard can fly, but how far his level can dip and still hold up over a best-of-five match.

Alcaraz arrives in New York as the defending champion after more than four months away with a wrist injury. The 23-year-old has not appeared on the ATP Tour since hurting himself at the Barcelona Open in mid-April. There were doubts he would even make it to Flushing Meadows after withdrawing from Cincinnati, yet he is in the draw and ready to begin his title defense.

He has already eased himself back into competition this week by partnering Serena Williams in the mixed doubles event. After two shortened matches in that revamped format, he appears to be fit enough to start the tournament. Even so, questions about his match sharpness remain.

Mouratoglou, Serena’s former coach, said on Instagram that he will be watching one thing above all in Alcaraz’s opening round. He said, “Is he ready to win the US Open? 99% of players cannot play consistently at the very high level throughout a five-set match. The question that I will ask myself while watching Carlos Alcaraz’s first round is: how low is his low level?

“Because his high will always be crazy high. The question is, how low is his low, but also how long does the low last? Is it going to be one full set or just one game and then, right after, he’s going to break back, for example?

“So that will be very important. If he checks out for long periods and is very much up and down, then we can worry.”

Alcaraz will not have much time to settle in. He opens against Roman Safiullin, who has climbed more than 100 places this season to No 99 after returning from injury. Safiullin reached the fourth round at Wimbledon this year and took Novak Djokovic to four sets, while he also beat Alcaraz in straight sets at the 2023 Paris Masters.

Their head-to-head stands at 1-1, and Alcaraz says he is simply grateful to be back. He said earlier this week, “ After a couple of months recovering from my injury, I miss everything. I miss this place, I miss the crowd, I miss the ball kids. I think I couldn’t have started at a better place than here, so I feel very grateful. I’m just happy.”

A strong group of ATP players has reached the same conclusion: Rafael Jodar is the leading young name in men’s tennis right now.

The Spaniard started the 2025 season at No. 895 while still at the University of Virginia. By the close of the year, the 19-year-old had climbed to No. 168, decided to turn professional, and set off on an even steeper rise in 2026.

That progress has been extraordinary. Earlier this month, Jodar moved to a career-high of No. 11, and he remains in position to challenge Boris Becker’s record for the fastest climb from the top 100 into the top 10.

His form has also placed him ninth in the ATP Tour Race, with a place at the ATP Finals in Turin later this year looking increasingly plausible. Among players 21 and under, only Learner Tien, Jakub Mensik, and Joao Fonseca are anywhere near him in the NextGen conversation.

With the US Open approaching, Jodar is aiming for another deep run after reaching the French Open quarter-finals earlier this year. Several established players have already pointed to him as the breakout candidate for Flushing Meadows.

Matteo Berrettini told ATP Tour, “I feel like there are so many young guys that are so good already; they are stars already.

“The first name that comes to mind is Jodar. He’s top 20 in the world. So he’s not really a rising star; he is a star already.”

Alex De Minaur also selected Jodar, while Casper Ruud named the Spaniard or Tien. Karen Khachanov added, “Jodar. I think everybody’s now speaking about him. Really fast development and progress over the last four, five months.”

The praise has not stopped there. Toni said, “I am liking Rafael Jodar a lot because of what I have seen. It seems to me that it is the best of the new generation,” and later added that he does not see him in the same class as Carlos Alcaraz, but believes he can trouble the best players in the world.