The indomitable Serena Williams has once again snared top billing on Forbes magazine’s annual list of highest paid sportswomen.
What makes Williams achievement even more extraordinary is she’s been not played for most of 2017 after revealing she was pregnant at the Australian Open in January.
This year’s list is again dominated by tennis players, with eight of the top 10 paid women all swinging a tennis racquet.
Williams actually makes more money from endorsements that she does from prize money and she currently has more than a dozen endorsement partners, including Beats by Dre, Gatorade, JPMorgan Chase, Nike and Tempur-Pedic, Intel and Berlei.
According to Forbes, Williams’ earnings for 2016-2017 was $US27 million which is still a long way off the top paid male tennis star, Roger Federer who pulled in $US67 million in the same period. Both are a long way off the top paid sports star on the planet – footballer Christiano Ronaldo who made $US93 million in the 12 months to June 2017.
The top 10 list of female sports stars for 2017 include (all money in US dollars):
- Serena Williams (tennis) – $27 million ($8 million from prize money)
- Angelique Kerber (tennis) – $12.6 million ($7.6 million from prize money)
- Danica Patrick (motor racing) – $12.2 million ($7.2 million from prize money)
- Rounda Rousey (UFC) – $11 million ($8 million from prize money)
- Venus Williams (tennis ) – $10.5 million ($3.5 million from prize money)
- Garbine Muguruza (tennis) – $7.7 million ($4.2 million from prize money)
- Caroline Wozniacki (tennis) – $7.5 million ($2.5 million from prize money)
- Agnieszka Radwanska (tennis) – $7.3 million ($3.3 million from prize money)
- Eugenie Bouchard (tennis) – $7.1 million ($600,000 from prize money)
- Simona Halep (tennis) – $6.2 million ($4.7 million from prize money)
