The 23-year-old world No. 3 will play his first match in Vienna since 2021, when the ATP 500 event begins on 26 October.
It is a return nobody at the Wiener Stadthalle was expecting to arrange in mid-October. Alcaraz had been pencilled in for the Six Kings Slam exhibition in Riyadh, but that tournament was pushed to 27-30 December after an attack on Saudi Arabia’s capital, reopening a conversation Vienna last had about him three years ago.
The €750,000 that was too much
In 2023, tournament director Herwig Straka was approached about an Alcaraz appearance. He declined. The reported ask was €750,000, and Straka preferred to spread the budget across a deeper field featuring Daniil Medvedev, Jannik Sinner, Andrey Rublev, Stefanos Tsitsipas and Alexander Zverev. Alcaraz was, in the shorthand that stuck, “too expensive.”
Three years on, the market has moved. He has gone from two Grand Slams to seven. The ATP currently lists him at 33-5 for 2026 with titles in Melbourne, Doha and Tokyo, and his place at the Nitto ATP Finals is already locked in. Industry estimates put his current appearance fee comfortably past €1m, though neither Alcaraz’s camp nor the tournament has disclosed the 2026 terms.
‘Slam winners ask for 1 to 1.5 million’
The gap between the old price tag and his 2026 value has reopened the quiet debate about what top players are paid to turn up. Tennis journalist Jose Moron, writing on X and quoted by Essentially Sports, put a figure on it.
“Slam winners ask for between 1 and 1.5M per tournament, that’s what I know, although Federer once asked for 2M, even,” Moron wrote.
“Yes, prizes aside. The other is an appearance fee.”
The 2023 €750,000 figure was itself only a reported number, never confirmed on the record. The 2026 one looks likely to stay the same way.
Read also: Alex Pereira mocked over luxury cars as UFC rival makes outrageous claim about his manhood
Sinner’s absence freed the budget
Vienna’s willingness to meet Alcaraz’s number is almost certainly connected to a hole elsewhere in the draw. Sinner, the defending champion, announced on 6 October that his season was over with a knee problem he has carried since winning Wimbledon in July. The Italian world No. 1 has not played a tournament since.
His withdrawal removed the single biggest name on the Vienna poster, and by every indication the single biggest line in the budget.
Zverev, Medvedev, Alex de Minaur and Flavio Cobolli are the other seeds Alcaraz will share a bracket with. His last visit, in 2021, ended in the semi-finals against Zverev, who went on to win the title.
Read also: A new Grand Prix in Rwanda will bring Formula 1 back to Africa after three decades
