Forbes has revealed their annual list of the top-earning female athletes and Queen Serena Williams has assumed her rightful dollar making place at the top of the list.
Eight of the top ten earning female athletes are tennis players. An unsurprising fact given that the racquet sport is the ONLY sport where women and men are paid the same for competing and winning at a premier level.
Even though Serena *only* earned $62,000 (£48,050) from prize money last year, due to taking a fourteen-month break for maternity leave, but she made a casual $18 million in endorsement deals. That is a cracking sum of £13.95 million.
Maria Sharapova, who topped the list for a record eleven years has relinquished her place to Serena following a 15-month drug man which saw some of her lucrative endorsement deals cease. However, she returns to the list to round off the top five with £8.1 million. I still wouldn’t kick that sum out of my bank account.
The full top ten, and their earnings are:
1. Serena Williams (tennis) – $18.1m (£14m)
2. Caroline Wozniacki (tennis) – $13m (£10.1m)
3. Sloane Stephens (tennis) – $11.2m (£8.7m)
4. Garbine Muguruza (tennis) – $11m (£8.5m)
5. Maria Sharapova (tennis) – $10.5m (£8.1m)
6. Venus Williams (tennis) – $10.2m (£7.9m)
7. PV Sindhu (badminton) – $8.5m (£6.6m)
8. Simona Halep (tennis) – $7.7m (£6m)
9. Danica Patrick (race car driving) – $7.5m (£5.8m)
10. Angelique Kerber (tennis) – $7m (£5.4m)
In our humble opinion, Serena Williams is a total badass. As well as being one of the world’s most talented athletes, Serena Williams is an outspoken and unapologetic feminist.
Taken from GLAMOUR UK. Read the original here.
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