Roger Federer & Rafael Nadal's prize money has fallen by more than 80% in 2020

Tennis has been brought to a complete halt courtesy of the COVID-19 outbreak. And while the health toll of the pandemic has obviously been enormous, the tennis stars - especially the Big 3 of Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic - have also been hit hard on the financial front.

Swiss legend Roger Federer has been hit the hardest in terms of income generated from tennis in 2020, and part of the reason for that is his injury. His rival Rafael Nadal has also seen a drastic decrease in his earnings.

Roger Federer has had an 88% fall in prize money this year

22.395.229$ : c’est le manque à gagner du top 10 mondial par rapport à la même époque en 2019. Quatre mois d’inactivité qui pèsent lourd... Le détail, ci-dessous. pic.twitter.com/60lTbSWeMI

— Yves Simon (@yvessimonsevy) July 14, 2020

Journalist Yves Simon of Sudpresse compiled a list where he compared the top 10 players' 2019 earnings with those of 2020. The period for which the earnings were calculated was January to July for both the years.

Roger Federer played a total of nine tournaments during that period in 2019, three of which were Grand Slam events. Out of the nine, Federer won three tournaments (Dubai, Miami and Halle) and finished runner-up in two (Indian Wells and Wimbledon). His earnings from these nine tournaments made for a handsome total of $5,739,749.

Roger Federer was third in the earnings list at the end of this phase in 2019, behind Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal.

Roger Federer ruled himself out of 2020 due to injury

2020, however, has painted an entirely different picture for Roger Federer. While the pandemic forced the suspension of the tour in March, Roger Federer has been away since February itself due to his knee injury.

The 20-time Grand Slam champion had to undergo two arthroscopic procedures, ruling him out for more than nine months. As such, his earnings would have been severely hit regardless of COVID-19.

Federer is currently recovering from his second knee surgery and expects to be back to fitness by January 2021 at the latest.

Roger Federer lost to Novak Djokovic at the 2020 Australian Open

The only tournament that the Swiss maestro competed in this year was the Australian Open. Federer managed to reach the semi-finals there, where he was beaten by the eventual champion Novak Djokovic. For this achievement the Swiss earned a sum of $714,792, which is all the prize money that he earned in 2020.

Therefore, the total fall in Federer's earnings stands at $5,024,957 - which is equivalent to an 88% decrease.

Roger Federer is not the only one affected as Rafael Nadal has seen a sharp decline in income as well

Like Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal has also been greatly impacted

Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic have also witnessed a substantial decrease in their incomes during the same period. But while Djokovic's drop is relatively small at 41%, Nadal’s is rather steep at 81%.

The Spaniard has been the worst hit among the top 10 after Roger Federer.

Like Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal also played nine tournaments during the January-July period in 2019. The Spaniard took home two titles (French Open and Italian Open) and was the runner-up at one (Australian Open).

The Spaniard pocketed a cool $6,999,385 from all his efforts. That is considerably higher than what Roger Federer made in 2019 because Nadal was more consistent; he managed to reach at least the semi-finals in all but one tournament out of the nine.

Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal will be hoping for a brighter 2021

In 2020, the Spaniard managed to take part in the ATP Cup, Australian Open and Mexican Open before tennis came to an abrupt halt. Rafael Nadal won the Mexican Open and was runner-up at the ATP Cup, and made a total of $1,329,267 - which is a shortfall of $5,674,118.

Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer would likely be unfazed by this decrease, as they are both quite wealthy. While Federer was adjudged the richest sportsperson in 2019, Nadal recently splurged around $6 million on his new luxury super yacht.

However, the figures show just how great an impact COVID-19 has had across the board.