Serbian tennis player Novak Djokovic was denied more than 4.5 million dollars in earnings in 2023 after it was confirmed that the world number one did not receive his biggest bonus because he did not make enough appearances at Masters tournaments.
However, he couldn’t even play in those tournaments because he was forbidden to enter the United States (U.S.) in the spring because he wasn’t vaccinated. At that time, the government’s ban was still in force, and because of that, he missed the Indian Wells Open and Miami Open.
The aforementioned tournaments were played from March 6th to 13th and from March 20th to 27th, and Carlos Alcaraz won the Indian Wells Open, while Daniil Medvedev was the best in Miami.
Djokovic won almost 16 million dollars from tournaments and was the leading tennis player in a historic season in which four players earned more than ten million dollars, along with Carlos Alcaraz (15.1 million), Daniil Medvedev (11.5 million) and Jannik Sinner (10.4 million).
Carlos Alcaraz earned the most from bonuses, and this is their bonus earnings: Novak Djokovic – 0, Carlos Alcaraz – 4.443.073, Daniil Medvedev – 2.308.344, Jannik Sinner – 2.106.872, Andrey Rublev – 1.082.956, Alexander Zverev – 718.662.
Looking at the list, it is easy to conclude that Novak Djokovic’s earnings would have reached at least 4.5 million dollars, but it was reduced by one hundred percent because he missed more than three tournaments from the Masters 1000 series. Apart from Indian Wells and Miami, Novak did not play in Madrid because he was injured.
Given that the ban on unvaccinated people has been lifted and is no longer in effect, Djokovic will have the opportunity to play in the U.S. tournaments in the spring and will have another chance to win the aforementioned bonus in the season that will soon begin.