Alex de Minaur usurps Lleyton Hewitt to become Australia's highest earning male prize money winner in history

Alex de Minaur is now the highest earning male tennis player ever in Australia after his latest triumph which saw him scoop nearly $1million at the Ultimate Tennis Showdown on Sunday night in London.

De Minaur walked away with the top prize in the Grand Final defeating Casper Ruud and he secured $964,000 in prize money as well as the lightning bolt trophy which has become synonymous with some of the best photos in the sport. He walks away not only with that amount but also a bonus of $250,000 USD for playing an earlier UTS event in France with the totals done based on their previous participations also.

He also received the trophy for the second straight year and now has over $21m in prize money which chimes to be around $32million Australian. This now takes him over albeit unofficially for now past Lleyton Hewitt who won $20,890,470. Unofficial as the UTS is not a tour event but when it comes to overall prize money he is now ahead. he is the highest prize-money earner in Australian men's tennis history and soon will be number one.

Now he sits in 31st on the all-time ATP Prize Money list and isn't too far away from surpassing more legends. Ivan Lendl earned $21,262,417 in his career while Boris Becker won $25,080,956 albeit even in the case of De Minaur v Hewitt even it showcases the prize money that is now on offer to top players with previously would've been unheard of.

Winning the third UTS showdown of his career, he joked about being in his second home being engaged to Brit, Katie Boulter. “This year it was a little bit harder, having lost that match and playing a match that was potentially do or die. So I was a little bit stressed, but it was a perfect Sunday.”

“I had to be a little bit nicer to myself. I can’t get too angry when I make mistakes, or too frustrated. So ultimately, I felt like, as the days went on, I played better and better and I found my level.”

He is likely to become Australia's highest earner male or female very soon. Despite De Minaur holding the men's record, Ashleigh Barty who stated again today that she has no plans to return to the sport and will likely be passed shortly.

Barty is on $35m AUD compared to $31m for De Minaur meaning he only realistically needs another $4m in his career to surpass her for that top spot. Behind Hewitt is Sam Stosur who is on $30,207,441 and past that top four there is a pretty sizeable gap.

Daria Kasatkina who only defected to Australia this year now represents the country so makes up the top 10 and she is in fifth spot with $14,239,744 ($21,432,163) in prize money and she is nearly $10m behind Stosur anyway so the likelihood is that those on top will stay for some time.

Nick Kyrgios sits on $19,268,948 in AUD ahead of his comeback while Pat Rafter is behind on $16,756,412. Todd Woodbridge, Jordan Thompson and Mark Woodforde conclude the list of those who are highlighted.

But overall it shows De Minaur's consistency at the top of Aussie tennis as well as the gulf between the pay now compared to the times of Hewitt, Stosur and even Barty with the amounts increasing further each year. All of this without De Minaur winning a slam yet either.