Jakarta: After losing in the French Open final to China’s Han Chengkai/Zhou Haodong on Sunday, World No. 1 men’s doubles pair Marcus Fernaldi Gideon/Kevin Sanjaya Sukamuljo would need to wait a little longer to break the one million US dollar mark in term of their career prize money.
Marcus Fernaldi Gideon/Kevin Sanjaya Sukamuljo who currently have the second highest career prize money earnings in men’s doubles (Mathias Boe and Carsten Mogensen are the highest with $1,072,242.12), could have surpassed USD $1 million in career BWF earnings if they’ve won the French Open title by pocketing USD $55,500, which could add up to USD $1,024,556. Instead, they took home USD $26,250 as the runners-up, that brought their career earnings totaled just USD $995,306.
However, the Indonesians are expected to reach the million-dollar club after playing in 2018 Fuzhou China Open (November 6-11) and the 2018 Hong Kong Open (November 13-18).
Despite the French Open final defeat, Kevin Sanjaya seemed not too concerned about the loss by posting message below on his social media page.
“Not now but next, 2 weeks 1 champion 1 runner up is not bad, thanks for all your support,” said Kevin Sanjaya.
Below is the list of top 10 highest earning badminton players:
1. Lee Chong Wei (USD $1,855,957.50, men’s singles, Malaysia)
2. Tontowi Ahmad/Liliyana Natsir (USD $1,238,837.49, mixed doubles, Indonesia)
3. Chen Long (USD $1,105,702.50, men’s singles, China)
4. Tai Tzu Ying (USD $1,079,455.00, women’s singles, Taiwan)
5. Mathias Boe/Carsten Mogensen (USD $1,072,242.12, men’s doubles, Denmark)
6. Misaki Matsutomo/Ayaka Takahashi (USD $1,047,449.74, women’s doubles, Japan)
7. Lin Dan (USD $964,530.00, men’s singles, China)7.
8. Zheng Siwei/Huang Yaqiong (USD $917,880.60, mixed doubles, China)
9. Hendra Setiawan/Mohammad Ahsan (USD $823,208.76, men’s doubles, Indonesia)
10. Saina Nehwal (USD $788,422.50, women’s doubles, India)
In reality, some badminton stars earned more money from sponsorships than playing badminton. For example, PV Sindhu of India may have only earned total career prize money of USD $457,583.00, but the 23-year-old has a robust sponsor roster with Bridgestone, Gatorade, Nokia, Panasonic, Reckitt Benckiser and a half-dozen other brands that worth total of USD $8 million and made her the top 10 highest-paid female athletes from around the world in 2018.
Players such as Lee Chong Wei was estimated to worth $72 million USD while Lin Dan’s net worth was about $40 million USD, resulted from all kind of sponsorship and endorsement deals.
