Serena Williams is the highest-paid female athlete according to Forbes. The tennis star tops the list for the third year in a row.
Her income was greatly affected by her pregnancy in January 2017 as she remained off-court for the most part of the past year. Her sports winnings only amounted to $62K, dropping by a whopping a $10 million from the previous year. Still, the new mother was able to rake in twice as much earnings as any other female athlete.
Williams earned $18.1 million in endorsements, creating a gap of over $5 million between her stacks and that of the Australian Open winner Caroline Wozniacki who came in second on the list. Only 16 male athletes have earned more in endorsements within the same timeframe.
Peep the full ranking:
- Serena Williams (tennis) — $18.1m
- Caroline Wozniacki (tennis) — $13m
- Sloane Stephens (tennis) — $11.2m
- Garbine Muguruza (tennis) — $11m
- Maria Sharapova (tennis) — $10.5m
- Venus Williams (tennis) — $10.2m
- P. V. Sindhu (badminton) — $8.5m
- Simona Halep (tennis) — $7.7m
- Danica Patrick (race car driving) — $7.5m
- Angelique Kerber (tennis) — $7m
After giving birth to her first child, Serena William trained hard for an iconic comeback. Although she failed to tie Margaret Court for the most Grand Slam titles when she lost to her German opponent, she enlivened mothers' pride worldwide.
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