WTA Prize Money Leaders Update: Iga Swiatek's strong week isn't enough to dethrone Aryna Sabalenka

The Asian Swing has begun with the WTA 500 Korea Open, where Iga Swiatek was crowned the week's champion in the first tournament on Asian soil. The world No. 2 closed the gap in the WTA Prize Money Leaders after taking home a prize of $164,000 for her third title of the season, although she remains at a good distance from the top spot.

The undisputed leader of the season's Prize Money is world No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka. With the US Open title's $5 million prize—the largest prize in tennis history—in addition to three WTA 1000 titles and a WTA 500 at the Brisbane International, she leads with over 12 million euros in earnings. The Belarusian remains out of competition and will also be absent this week from the China Open, although Swiatek has no chance of catching her in terms of prize money, at least not until the WTA Finals in six weeks.

Further down the podium is French Open champion Coco Gauff, with $6.3 million in singles and doubles. The American is almost $3 million behind second-place Swiatek, and a good portion of her earnings come from her Roland Garros title and her appearances in the finals of the WTA 1000 Rome and Madrid Open.

Further back in the top 5 is Amanda Anisimova, with her Doha Open title and final appearances at Wimbledon and the US Open—surpassing $5 million. In fifth place is teenager Mirra Andreeva, champion of two WTA 1000s—the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships and Indian Wells—with nearly $4.5 million.

Big run in Korea propels Alexandrova close to the top-10

Ekaterina Alexandrova, ranked world No. 11, moved up three spots in the season's prize money race after adding nearly $100,000 for reaching the final in Seoul. Although she was defeated by Swiatek, the Russian has another great result, and at 31, she is having the best season of her career. In fact, her prize money this season is almost 25% of her total career prize money from the previous 10 seasons combined.

The Rise of Doubles Players

Another player who had a good performance in Korea was the Czech Katerina Siniakova, who, despite being ranked No. 59 in the WTA singles rankings, is No. 22 in the season's prize money. The Czech had another great doubles campaign, winning a WTA 500 title and reaching $1.7 million in earnings for the season, of which $940,000 comes from her doubles campaigns. The 29-year-old star, who recently regained the world No. 1 doubles ranking, earns the majority of her income in that category.

This is similar to the cases of players like Elise Mertens (11th), Veronika Kudermetova (15th), Taylor Townsend (19th), and Sara Errani (27th), who have earned significant amounts in doubles, placing them in much more privileged positions in this year's prize money race than their singles rankings would suggest.