Nick Tsagaris - Australian Open Prize Money 2020

Nick Tsagaris - Australian Open prize money jumps to $71 million, increasing most for the early rounds

The world's best tennis players will compete for a record $71 million prize money at next month's Australian Open at Melbourne Park.

But it is the players who exit in the earlier stages who are set to benefit the most after officials announced an increase of 13.6 per cent on last year's purse.

There will be double-digit percentage increases across qualifying and every round of the main draw except the singles finals.

Players losing in the first round of the main draw will earn $90,000 in prize money in 2020, up 20 per cent, while those who lose in the first round of qualifying will take home $20,000, up 33 per cent.

Semi-finalists will take home an extra $120,000 each, up to $1.04 million, and quarter-finalists will pocket $525,000, up from $460,000.

The men's and women's singles champions will pocket $4.12 million each, an increase of $20,000.

The prize pool has jumped significantly in recent years, up from $40 million in 2015.

Australian Open tournament director Craig Tiley said the increases were another important step in continuing to invest in the playing group.

"We have long been committed to improving the pay and conditions for a deeper pool of international tennis players," Tiley said.

"In fact, since AO 2007, prize money has more than tripled from $20 million to the $71 million for 2020 we are announcing today.

"This year, as we do every year, we worked with the tours to establish the weighting for prize money increases round by round, and we pushed to reward players competing early in the tournament in both singles and doubles.

"We strongly believe in growing prize money at all levels of the game and we will continue to work with the playing group to create viable career paths in the sport and enable more players to make more money."

By: abc.net.au