SYDNEY (Xinhua) – The world’s best tennis players will compete for a record 49.1 million U.S. dollars at the 2020 Australian Open, officials announced on Tuesday.

Tournament champions in both the men’s and women’s singles events will take home 2.84 million U.S. dollars, while runners up will receive 1.42 million U.S. dollars.

Sponsorships and overseas interest have seen the event’s total prize money more than double over the past decade.

Australian Open tournament director Craig Tiley said that the increase goes a long way to supporting and valuing athletes at all levels of the competition.

“This year, as we do every year, we worked with the tours to establish the weighting for prize money which increases round-by-round, and we pushed to reward players competing early in the tournament in both singles and doubles,” Tiley said.

Players exiting in the first round of the main draw will now receive 62,000 U.S. dollars, while those who make it to the semifinals will earn 719,000 U.S. dollars.

Additionally, those bowing out early in the first round of qualifiers will walk away with 13,800 U.S. dollars, a 33.3 percent year-on-year increase from 2018.

• Tags: Australian Open, tennis