Carlos Alcaraz is set to make his ATP 500 return at the Vienna Open, as he accepted a last-minute wildcard to play the indoor tournament.

Alcaraz has enjoyed his time at ATP 500 level this year, scooping the Qatar Open and the Japan Open in his only two other appearances in the 2026 season.

The top players on the ATP Tour earn appearance fees for playing 500 events to entice them even further to drop down a rung and compete at a smaller tournament.

Unsurprisingly, Alcaraz earns the big bucks from the ATP Tour and Greg Rusedski has outlined the ‘rumour’ he has heard about how much the Spaniard is earning.

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Speaking on Off Court with Greg, the British star said: “For the 500 events, usually someone like Carlos, the rumour is about $850,000 to show up for the week. So you’re talking big dollars before you even hit a tennis ball.

“And then depending on the country and the supply and demand, sometimes it can go into the seven figures, the appearance money as well. It just depends how many tickets the tournament needs to sell.

“It depends how bad the sponsor wants that player there. So, there’s multiple facets and it’s always run through the agent 99% of the time.”

Alcaraz has already lined up two ATP 500 tournaments to play in the 2027 season too.

He is set to play the Rotterdam Open in February and he has already signed up to play Queen’s during the grass court season in June, after missing the tournament due to injury this year.

With Alcaraz’s current complaints about the hectic nature of the ATP Tour schedule, particularly the length of the new Masters 1000 format, it appears 500 events are the perfect sweet spot for the Spaniard.

They only last a week and they tend to offer bigger challenges from the offset due to the smaller draws and format.

That is evident by Alcaraz’s difficult first round tie at the Vienna Open, where he is set to play Karen Khachanov.

The Russian star is the current world No 24 and he already has a Grand Slam semifinal to his name during the 2026 season.

However, Alcaraz has a very good record against Khachanov, so he should be confident of getting a victory against the star.

He has won all six of his matches against Khachanov on the ATP Tour, including earlier this year in the Qatar Open quarterfinals. Khachanov has only managed to win two sets off Alcaraz in their six matches in that time too, so the Spaniard will be the overwhelming favourite to win.