Elena Rybakina earned $5.5 million in prize money for winning the 2026 US Open tennis championship. The sum is the largest payout ever awarded to a champion of a single tournament in the history of professional tennis, according to infohub.kz.
In the final, the Kazakh tennis player defeated Arina Sabalenka 6-4, 5-7, 6-2 to claim her first US Open title. In addition to her third Grand Slam title, the victory in New York brought Rybakina a record payout.
The total prize pool for the 2026 US Open was $108 million — 20 percent more than last year's $90 million. Organizers allocated $5.5 million each to the men's and women's singles champions.
In tenge, Rybakina's prize money amounts to about 2.48 billion tenge. The figure is before taxes.
Rybakina broke her own record. Before the US Open, her largest prize came from winning the 2025 Women's Tennis Association Finals. The Kazakh player won all five matches and earned $5.235 million — at the time, the record payout in women's tennis.
US Open runner-up Sabalenka received $2.8 million — nearly half as much as the champion.
The 2026 US Open was historic for Rybakina in several ways. Along with her first title in New York and record prize money, she will top the Women's Tennis Association rankings for the first time in her career based on the tournament results.