Badzine will calculate and publish a list of top earners in the badminton circuit, every three months, to give an idea of who is getting what from the events they compete in. This list only takes in account the “prize money” for top players, which is a public figure, and does not include any sponsorship agreements nor salaries paid by their clubs or federation. These figures are also the ones given on the “prize money” charts from the events, which do not include any taxes that were withdrawn by local authorities.
Our first list is the final list of the year of 2011 where we have highlighted the players individually rather than pairs.
Logically, as the world’s number one, Lee Chong Wei also tops the list of earners for 2011 with a global income of US$267,350. He has earned almost 5 times more money as Chen Jin, the 5th best earner of 2011. Doubles and mixed specialist Zhao Yunlei is the top earner for the doubles category with US$235,128 but for women overall, Wang Yihan tops the list with a total of US$265,575. The top man in the doubles category is Zhang Nan at $154,369.
Altogether, only 14 shuttlers have earned more than US$100,000 in prize money in 2011. The top Europeans are the duo of Boe/Mogensen, who each have earned US$101,299. Peter Gade, the top European in men’s singles, earned US$88,500 for his great season.
Players’ Earnings Ranking – 2011
Highest Earning Player: Lee Chong Wei (Malaysia) US$267,350
Top 5 Highest Earning Players:
1. Lee Chong Wei (Malaysia/MS) US$267,350
2. Wang Yihan (China/WS) US$265,575
3. Zhao Yunlei (China/WD/XD) US$235,128
4. Lin Dan (China/MS) US$219,500
5. Yu Yang (China/WD/XD) US$194,381
top 5 by gender
Top 5 Highest Earning Male Players
1. Lee Chong Wei (Malaysia/MS) USD 267,350
2. Lin Dan (China/MS) US$219,500
3. Zhang Nan (China/MD/XD) US$154,369
4. Chen Long (China/MS) US$143,300
5. Lee Yong Dae (Korea/MD/XD) US$142,635
Highest Earning Female Players
1. Wang Yihan (China/WS) US$265,575
2. Zhao Yunlei (China/WD/XD) US$235,128
3. Yu Yang (China/WD/XD) US$194,381
4. Wang Shixian (China/WS) US$188,700
5. Wang Xiaoli (China/WD) US$185,725
Full list of earners by category HERE
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something seems to be wrong with these numbers..
LD earned 158.000 USD only for the 4-kins tournament.. and 75k for Korean Open.. that togehter is 233.000 USD for only two tournaments…
The figures seems wrong.. maybe they have not updated with the latest 2011 tournaments?
/twobeer
This is a good point. The footnote pointing out that these numbers are from BWF Superseries and Grand Prix events only is on the attached table but not yet in the article so it isn’t clear from the text that invitational tournaments have been excluded. By the way, Lin Dan actually won US$90,000 for the Korea Open, making your point even stronger.
these numbers are wrong!!! no!!it’s impossible!!
This article is just about facts, nothing else!!
Its a shame that these figures are only a fraction of what pros of other popular sports earn. And most of the money is going to China..
Definitvely. One of the biggest problems to increase the money is the tour setup with 5 tournaments men, womem + mixed in one.. leaving only 8% !! of the pricemoney to the Men Singles winner!!! And of course peanuts to quarter-finalists etc..
The real need is to break away so that each discipline gets it’s own tour and finances, and income, but honestly most pro players are against that, so I guess the pro badmintonlayers somewhat reap what they sew.
The earnings are in respect of BWF sanctioned tournaments only.