This time of year stands to be a lucrative one for Rafael Nadal.
The Spaniard, widely anointed the King of Clay, won his 11th titles in both Monte Carlo and Barcelona to bank close to US$2m in April.
And with barely a rival in sight on his preferred surface, May – anchored by Masters events in Madrid and Rome – could prove even more profitable for the world No.1.
> FEBRUARY: Kvitova heads money list
Men dominated the money list in April, but these figures were somewhat skewed by the inclusion of prize money for the ATP Masters event in Miami, a tournament which finished on 1 April. The concurrent women’s event wrapped up a day earlier, meaning those prize money figures were counted in March Money List.
> MARCH: Del Potro tops the table
Yet despite that, this month shone a light on the discrepancy in prize money between the ATP and WTA at rank-and-file events outside of the Grand Slams and Premier Mandatory tournaments.
As Nadal scooped more than US$600,000 for his triumph at the ATP 500-level tournament in Barcelona, Karolina Pliskova banked just US$140,000 for her victory the same week at the WTA Premier event in Stuttgart, coming through a field featuring eight of the world’s top 10.
She did, however, also win a Porsche 718 Boxster GTS.
| Player | Earnings ($US) | Activity | |
| 1 | Rafael Nadal | $1,743,913 | Another year, another Monte Carlo-Barcelona double for the Spaniard. Nadal banked more than $1 million for his triumph in Monaco and topped that up with another €501,700 (more than US$600,000) for his winning week in Barcelona. He didn’t lose a set in either tournament victory. |
| 2 | John Isner | $1,357,015 | After earning $1.34 million for his Miami Masters triumph, Isner – who’s back in the top 10 – was pretty quiet in April, playing just one ATP event (in Houston) and falling in the quarters to defending champ Steve Johnson. |
| 3 | Alexander Zverev | $934,480 | Like Isner, Zverev earned the bulk of his April prize money in Miami, where he advanced to the final. Yet he showed promise on clay as well, posting a semifinal finish in Monte Carlo (for which he earned $280,000) before going down to a resurgent Kei Nishikori. |
| 4 | Kei Nishikori | $624,619 | The Japanese star’s trip to the final of the lucrative Monte Carlo Masters – where he beat top-five players Cilic and Zverev before losing to Nadal – saw him finish as the fourth-highest earner in April and vault from No.36 to the brink of the top 20. |
| 5 | Pablo Carreno Busta | $478,165 | Semifinals in Miami and Barcelona together earned the second-ranked Spaniard almost half-a-million dollars in April. Carreno Busta currently sits at world No.11. |
Next best: Grigor Dimitrov. The Bulgarian, who has historically struggled on clay, appeared to find his feet on the surface in April, reaching the semis in Monte Carlo and quarters in Barcelona and banking just over $400,000 for his efforts.
Top female: Kiki Bertens (19th overall). Despite winning the prestigious WTA Charleston title, Bertens earned just $144,400 in April, finishing below Richard Gasquet (whose most profitable result in April was a Monte Carlo quarterfinal) and Steve Johnson and Marco Cecchinato, champions at minor 250 events in Houston and Budapest respectively.
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