Tennis players dominated the list of highest-earning female athletes in 2023. Seven WTA players featured in the top 10 with Coco Gauff atop the list. Stars like Iga Swiatek and Aryna Sabalenka featured in the list, which also had inactive players like Naomi Osaka.
The interesting part is that tennis players have always been prominent in this list. For two years running, tennis stars comprise seven of the world’s 10 highest-earning female athletes. The figures includes prize money and other fixed salaries or bonuses received during 2023. It also includes estimated endorsement earnings in addition to royalties, appearance fees, and businesses tied to the sportsperson. The amounts are all before taxes and agent fees.
Gauff, after a watershed 2023 season, topped the list published by Sportico. She earned $22.7 million of which $16 million comes from endorsements. The American teenager is one of the rare players to be highly ranked in both singles and doubles. This helps boost her prize winnings. World No.1 Iga Swiatek comes in second, making $21.9 million with $9.9 million in prize money. The bumper paycheck from the WTA Finals gave her a massive boost.
A non-tennis athlete enters in at No.3. Freestyle skier Eileen Gu took home $20 million, almost entirely in endorsements. Fourth and fifth positions are also taken by players who barely made anything on the court. Emma Raducanu and Naomi Osaka minted $16.2 and $15 million, respectively. Three tennis players take up the No. 6-8 spots. Aryna Sabalenka, Elena Rybakina, and Jessica Pegula made $12.2, $9.5, and $9 million, respectively.
Tennis’ streak is broken by the ninth-placed Simone Biles with $8.5 million. Golfer Nelly Korda, who made $7.9 million, rounds off top 10. Two more tennis stars feature when the list is expanded to the top 15. Leylah Fernandez and Ons Jabeur stand 13th and 15th. Overall, there are nine WTA players in the top 15 highest-earning women athletes.
Naomi Osaka, Serena Williams led tennis domination as Coco Gauff continues it in 2023
For two decades, Serena Williams, Maria Sharapova, and Naomi Osaka rotated the top spot in the list of the highest-earning female athletes. Even after two of them retired and one took a 1.5-years long maternity break, tennis continued to dominate in 2023. Surprisingly, Osaka stood fourth this year even with zero on-court earnings.
Despite last playing only in September 2022, Osaka’s immense brand value and endorsements stable found her a spot. The Japanese origin player was No.1 last year, earning $50 million (Forbes), 72% more than what she raked in this year.
This year’s No.1 Coco Gauff jumped up from No.8 in 2022. Last year, tennis had seven representatives in the top 10 as well. In 2021, however, only three athletes from the sport featured in the list.
Tennis peaked in 2019, when all 10 names on the list were WTA players. Further expanding the list to top 15 shows that tennis occupies nine of the 15 ranks in 2023. Two soccer players and skiiers each make it while golf and gymnastics have a sole athlete.
Sabalenka, Rybakina, Pegula, and Jabeur are new entrants. The top 15 sees only one non-tennis new athlete, skier Mikaela Shiffrin in 14th. This shows how new tennis players earn the big bucks to break into the list. Other sports have the same set of stars in the list as newer athletes struggle to earn that much.
However, WTA players still lag behind their ATP counterparts. Equal prize money is seen only in Grand Slams but not on other Tour events. Tennis, as a whole, falls behind other globally popular sports in remunerating athletes well.
