Ash Barty matches Rafa Nadal with groundbreaking French Open payday

Ash Barty has picked up a record payday after her remarkable French Open triumph.

The Aussie star was awarded $3.77 million for taking out the title at Roland Garros - the biggest prize for a winner in the history of the French Open.

The clay-court grand slam handed out a record $20 million to players at the 2019 event, and pay was identical for men and women.

That means Barty swooped the same payday as male legend Rafael Nadal, who saw off Dominic Thiem to win a 12th title at Roland Garros.

Identical ranking too

Barty's first grand slam title also allowed her to rise to a career-best No. 2 on Monday, almost three years to the day after she re-entered the WTA rankings following a hiatus from tennis while she played professional cricket.

Barty moved up six places and now trails only reigning US Open and Australian Open champion Naomi Osaka.

“New ground for me. New experiences, new feelings. A goal of mine this year was to try and crack the top 10. And we were able to do that,” said Barty.

“And then it was chipping away, trying to get top five.

“It's all happened pretty quickly over the last two weeks. But we're trying to take it in our stride and obviously we'll have a couple of quiet days now to relax, to enjoy, to celebrate. And then set new goals."

The top eight spots in the ATP rankings stayed the same, with Nadal at No. 2 behind Novak Djokovic.

Roger Federer is still at No. 3 and Thiem is No. 4.

This was the first time since the 2012 Australian Open that the top four men in the rankings all reached the semi-finals at a tournament.

Karen Khachanov, a quarterfinalist in Paris, cracked the top 10 for the first time, rising two spots to No. 9, with Fabio Fognini at No. 10.

with agencies