Among male athletes, golf players tend to get the most lucrative endorsement deals. Not so for females. Taiwanese golfer Yani Tseng is the only female in her sport to make Forbes’ top 10 list. Just in her mid-20s, Tseng takes home more than $6.1 million per year.
The Polish tennis player became the first to reach a Grand Slam final in the Open Era at Wimbledon in 2011. Most of her $6.9 million in earnings comes from prize money, but Agnieszka Radwanska is also sponsored by Lexus, Lotto and Babolat.
Earning around $7.2 million per year, the tennis player from Serbia makes the most of her income from an Adidas shoe and apparel deal rumored to be one of the best in women’s tennis.
The South Korean figure skater ended her professional career after taking home the silver medal in the ladies singles at the 2014 Sochi Olympic Games. Her earnings are estimated at around $9 million per year and she played a major role in attracting the 2018 Winter Olympics to Pyeongchang, South Korea.
Earning $9.7 million per year, the pro tennis player from Belarus has been ranked No. 1 in the world. Although she takes home a lot of her earnings in prize money, she also has an endorsement deal with Nike that amounts to a lot of cash.
The American NASCAR star has personal endorsement deals for Coke and Sega that have helped boost her income to some $13 million per year. In 2011, she was Yahoo’s most searched-for athlete of either sex. She also makes money as a model, appearing in swimsuit magazine spreads such as the one pictured here.
Earning $13.7 million, the Danish professional tennis player is No. 4 on the list. She earns more than $10 million per year from appearances and sponsors like Rolex, Adidas and Sony.
One of the world’s most dominant tennis players when healthy, Serena Williams of the U.S. is also the No. 3 earner on this list with an estimated annual income of $16.3 million. She has been suffering for several years from pulmonary embolism, or blood clot in her lungs. Williams has won more than $38 million in prize money throughout her career.
At No. 2 is Chinese tennis pro Li Na, who has signed multiple multi-million dollar endorsement deals with Mercedes-Benz, Samsung Electronics and several Chinese firms since 2011. Her estimated annual earnings are around $18.4 million.
Earning $27.1 million in 2014, Russian professional tennis player Maria Sharapova is No. 1 on the list. Her deal with Nike is the most lucrative in the world of women’s tennis and sales for her Maria Sharapova Collection of shoes and accessories have doubled in recent years. A U.S. resident since 1994, she’s 27 years old.
