Twenty three times Grand Slam champion and tennis icon, Serena Williams, has been voted world’s richest female athlete by Forbes. Eight of the top 10 highest earning female athletes are tennis players.
The latest Forbes list reveals that the black American earns just $62,000 (£48,050) from prize money during the past year – owing largely to her 14-month break to have a baby – but made $18m (£13.95m) through endorsements.
No woman made the Forbes’ top 100 highest earning athlete in June as Williams dropped out of the chart.
United States pugilist Floyd Mayweather topped the list of world’s richest athlete followed by Argentine football star, Lionel Messi, and Portuguese striker, Cristiano Ronaldo.
The top 10 highest earning female athletes earned $105m (£81.4m) in total from June 2017 to June 2018.
That figure is down 4% from last year and 28% from five years ago.
Williams’ total earnings ensure she tops the list for the third successive year, making twice as much away from the tennis court as any other female athlete.
Caroline Wozniacki is second on the list having won her first Grand Slam title at the Australian Open earlier this year – a victory that secured her $3.1m (£2.4m) in prize money to push her total earnings to $13m (£10.1m).
Completing the top five are Sloane Stephens, Garbine Muguruza and Maria Sharapova.
Russian Sharapova was the top-earning female athlete for 11 consecutive years but has seen her earnings drop after her 15-month doping ban.
Indian Olympic and world silver medalist, Sindhu, and Patrick – the most successful female race car driver, are seventh and ninth on the list respectively.
