The top 10 highest-paid female athletes list by Forbes for 2021 includes five Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) stars, demonstrating the significant upward progress for women in sports. Badminton player PV Sindhu was ranked No. 7 with $7.2 million in total earnings and Naomi Osaka, a tennis player, topped the list.
According to Forbes latest estimates, the world’s 10 highest-paid female athletes earned a combined $167 million before taxes in 2021, a 23 per cent rise over 2020 and a 16 per cent increase over the previous high of $143.3 million established in 2013.
Tennis star Naomi Osaka is at the top, with a total of $57.3 million, certainly a calendar-year record for a female athlete. Serena Williams comes in second with $45.9 million.
Here are the ten highest paid female athletes from 2021 :
- NAOMI OSAKA
– Tennis, Age: 24, Japan, Total Earnings: $57.3M
Naomi Osaka’s pretax earnings of $57.3 million comes from her ten brand partners in the last year and a half, including Louis Vuitton, Sweetgreen, and Tag Heuer. In recent months, the 24-year-old athlete has acquired financial shares in virtual reality startup StatusPRO and plant-based chicken manufacturer Daring Foods. She also released a collection of NFTs on Tom Brady’s Autograph platform and launched a cosmetics line called Kinl.
2. SERENA WILLIAMS
– Tennis, Age: 40, U.S., Total Earnings: $45.9M
Serena Williams, despite the fact that the 40-year-old played in only six WTA Tour tournaments and fell to 41st in the women’s rankings—her lowest since returning to tennis in 2018 after the birth of her daughter—she continues to be a big draw for advertisers, partnering with Nike, Gatorade, and, most recently, DirecTV. She was an executive producer on the 2021 film King Richard, which is based on her father. Her company, Serena Ventures, has invested in over 60 startups.
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3. VENUS WILLIAMS
– Tennis, Age: 41, U.S, Total Earnings: $11.3M