Carlos Alcaraz overtakes Novak Djokovic, becomes 5th ATP player to earn $10M prize money in a season

Carlos Alcaraz has overtaken Novak Djokovic as the season's prize money leader with a whopping $10.1 million. In doing so, he also became the fifth ATP player after Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray to earn $10M in prize money in a year.

The Serb had previously led the table in total earnings this season with $9,934, 582. However, the young Spaniard surpassed him after getting a bonus pool boost.

The 2022 ATP bonus pool has been distributed, and eight of the top 12 players at the end of the year — Carlos Alcaraz, Rafael Nadal, Casper Ruud, Stefanos Tsitsipas, Felix Auger-Aliassime, Andrey Rublev, Hubert Hurkacz, and Holger Rune — received their part of the $11M bonus money.

After failing to reach the Masters 1000 criteria due to missing too many tournaments this year, Novak Djokovic, Daniil Medvedev, Taylor Fritz, and Alexander Zverev received no bonus money.

Alcaraz won the US Open and earned $2.6 million, his largest prize cheque of the year. He has won two Masters 1000s in Miami and Madrid, and two ATP 500s in Rio de Janeiro and Barcelona this season. His first Masters title in Miami earned him $1.2 million, and his second in Madrid brought in $2,89,051.12.

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"In many ways, Carlos Alcaraz is better than Rafael Nadal" - Nicolas Lapentti

Carlos Alcaraz pictured with Rafael Nadal at the 2022 Mutua Madrid Open.

Comparing the many aspects of Carlos Alcaraz and Rafael Nadal's games, former World No. 6 Nicolas Lapentti stated that Alcaraz is better than the 22-time Grand Slam winner when he was 19 years old.

"If you can compare Alcaraz to Nadal when they were both 19, Alcaraz is much better in many different things," Lapentti said, adding, "He serves better than Rafa. From the baseline, he is a bit more aggressive. Rafa was bad with his transition when he was 19 then he started improving a lot and tried to get more aggressive," he said.

"They move pretty similar. When they have to defend, they are very good - both of them. Then, coming to the net, Alcaraz is much better than where Rafa was at 19. So, in many ways, Alcaraz is better," he added.

The Ecuadorian, however, questioned whether the 2022 US Open champion would be able to sustain his consistency as Nadal, who hasn't dropped out of the ATP top 10 since 2005.

"The thing that amazes me the most. Is Alcaraz going to be able to stay 10 years on top? Rafa, I think Rafa hasn’t left top-10 in the past 20 years or something. I mean, It’s just crazy," he said.