MELBOURNE — Carlos Alcaraz beat Novak Djokovic 2-6, 6-2, 6-3, 7-5 on Sunday to win his first Australian Open and his seventh major title. At just 22 years old, Alcaraz became the youngest player to achieve the career Grand Slam—winning all four majors.
The Spaniard is just the tenth man to accomplish the feat, and the sixth in the Open Era, following Rod Laver, Andre Agassi, Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Djokovic. The career Grand Slam was a major goal for Alcaraz, who said that winning the 2026 Australian Open would mean more to him than winning this year’s French Open, Wimbledon and U.S. Open combined.
“I’d rather win this one than the [other] three and complete the Grand Slam and be the youngest ever to do it,” Alcaraz said after his semifinal win over Alexander Zverev on Friday.
The victory comes with $2.8 million in prize money, up 19% from last year’s payout, bringing Alcaraz’s career winnings to $62.8 million. It is already the fifth-highest total in ATP history, and he is on pace to surpass Andy Murray for fourth later this season.
Alcaraz’s 25th career title put an end to an unexpected run to the final from Djokovic; the 38-year-old was pursuing his 25th career Grand Slam victory—which would be the most of any player, man or woman. He was previously 10-0 in Australian Open finals.
The fans in Melbourne—especially those watching on the big screen outside, but also inside Rod Laver Area—were cheering for the elder statesman. Djokovic played one of his best first sets in years, hitting spots with his first serve and committing only four unforced errors, but he couldn’t maintain that level for the duration of his match. In his post-match press conference, while still giving full credit to his opponent’s well-rounded game, he alluded to the fact that he declined physically after the first set.
“I wasn’t able to maintain that kind of feeling that I had in the first set,” Djokovic said.
Djokovic will collect $1.4 million in prize money for being the runner-up, adding to his record on-court tennis earnings, which now total $192.7 million. Including his off-court earnings, he is one of the 40 highest-paid athletes of all time, even after adjusting for inflation. The all-time great has nothing left to prove in the late stages of his two-decade career.
“I was imagining playing against Jannik and Carlos at the final stages of Grand Slams this year and battling it out and really giving it all that I have,” Djokovic said on Friday. “So very fortunate to already get it in the first slam of the year.”
In the women’s final on Saturday, Elena Rybakina defeated Aryna Sabalenka 6-4, 4-6, 6-4 to win her first Australian Open and her second major overall, following her 2022 Wimbledon title. After winning the first set, Rybakina lost five straight games to lose the second set and go down 3-0 in the third, but she won six of the last seven games to pull off the comeback. She also wins $2.8 million in prize money, which pushes her career prize money to more than $27 million, which is in the top 15 of all-time WTA earners.
A significant chunk of Rybakina’s career winnings came from her 2025 WTA Finals payout of $5.2 million—a record for any tournament on either tour. It helped make her the ninth highest-paid female athlete in the world last year despite no major wins and only $4 million in endorsements.
Sabalenka repeatedly looked at her box in frustration during the third set, while Rybakina was unflappable and made fewer errors in the big moments. The Kazakhstani’s serve is one of the most lethal weapons on the women’s tour, and she rode it throughout the tournament, but especially in the final, during which she was only broken twice.
Rybakina is on a hot streak dating back to October 2025, winning 20 of her past 21 matches, including 10-0 versus top 10 opponents. Now No. 3 in the world, she has a legitimate chance to overtake Sabalenka for No. 1 if she continues to have a strong season.
While the women’s game has had five different winners in the past five Grand Slams, Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner have combined to win the last nine consecutive men’s singles titles between them. Their dominance is reminiscent of the Big Three era, during which Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal combined to win 11 consecutive Grand Slams, while Djokovic and Nadal claimed two separate stretches of nine straight.
Alcaraz and Sinner were the only two tennis players on Sportico’s 100 highest-paid athletes list for 2025. Alcaraz ranked higher at 35th with an estimated $57.8 million, $36 million of which came off the court via appearances fees and his sponsorship deals with Nike (worth more than $10 million alone), Rolex, BMW, Babolat and numerous other brands.
The previous youngest man to complete the career Grand Slam was Nadal at the 2010 U.S. Open when he was 24 years old. Nadal won 13 more majors after that, including the 2022 French Open more than a decade later. These past few years are likely just the beginning for Alcaraz.