Tennis
List Of 20 Highest Paid Female Tennis Player
The highest paid female player in tennis is an intriguing topic that has everyone one with a keen eye engaged in its discourse. We feature the highest paid female tennis players from both retired and active players. Have a look at our list with us.
Serena Williams//Getty Images
The highest paid lists are an intrigue and alluring topic for people, probably because of the capitalist economy with live in. Like it’s often said, ‘It’s all about the Benjamins’.
Tennis stars are not exempt from such inquiries because we can bet our bottom dollar everyone wants to know how much they make from hitting that little green ball.
Our list is diverse as it features active and retired female tennis players. Ironically, the spilt is ten each, and no we didn’t plan it, it’s just one of those weird ironies.
The 20 Highest Paid Female Tennis Players
We used data from prize monies won as we believe that is in all essence money tennis players earn from their trade. Endorsements and all else come as accrual from their greatness.
Our list is compiled using official figures from WTA’s career prize money data. The figures in of themselves are very recent.
Naomi Osaka just makes the cut at number twenty when most would have expected her to be higher up. We also have retired legendary names in the list, let’s have a look:
| Position | Player | Professional Status | Total Earnings |
| 1. | Serena Williams | Retired | $94,816,730 |
| 2. | Venus Williams | Active | $42,648,578 |
| 3. | Simona Halep | Active | $40,232,663 |
| 4. | Maria Sharapova | Retired | $38,777,962 |
| 5. | Victoria Azarenka | Active | $38,063,787 |
| 6. | Petra Kvitova | Active | $37,253,812 |
| 7. | Caroline Wozniacki | Active | $36,441,868 |
| 8. | Angelique Kerber | Retired | $32,519,180 |
| 9. | Iga Swiatek | Active | $32,106,991 |
| 10. | Aryna Sabalenka | Active | $29,071,823 |
| 11. | Agnieszka Radwanska | Retired | $27,683,807 |
| 12. | Karolina Pliskova | Active | $26,111,050 |
| 13. | Svetlana Kuznetsova | Retired | $25,816,890 |
| 14. | Garbiñe Muguruza | Retired | $24,813,892 |
| 15. | Martina Hingis | Retired | $24,749,074 |
| 16. | Kim Clijsters | Retired | $24,545,194 |
| 17. | Elina Svitolina | Active | $24,309,612 |
| 18. | Ashleigh Barty | Retired | $23,829,070 |
| 19. | Lindsay Davenport | Retired | $22,166,338 |
| 20. | Naomi Osaka | Active | $22,047,163 |
The concentration of money in tennis is extremely polarised, with 99% of it concentrated among the top 1%. That is players in the top 50 of either the WTA or ATP.
Interesting Factors We Noticed in the List
At number one, we have the best female tennis player to grace our presence in Serena Williams who is by miles ahead of number two. And just take a wild guess who that might be.
In another case of irony, we have the elder sister to Serena, Venus Williams at number two, albeit miles behind Serena whose figures are double that of her sister who is in retirement.
We can only wonder how many events Venus, who turned pro thirty years ago would need to win to reach her younger sister’s earnings. Perhaps if she hadn’t lost so many finals to her, we would be speaking something else.
Who Can Catch Up with Serena Williams?
Iga Swiatek//Getty Images
At 44 years of age and no longer in her prime we doubt Venus Williams will catch up to her younger sister’s earnings. It’s impossible as far as we can see, and we will dare to say ‘never’.
Iga Swiatek is the one female tennis player we think can reasonably catch Serena. Age is on her side at 23 and her earnings are around 30% of Serena’s overall earnings.
If she maintains a consistent enough level in reaching finals and winning them, she might just equal or peep the legendary American tennis player.
Others in the top ten don’t have that much of a chance based on age. It’s only Naomi Osaka and Aryna Sabalenka who have a fighting chance, but very doubtful in our assessment.
The Retired Players On Our List
Maria Sharapova is the second highest earning female tennis player on our list, closely trailed by Angelique Kerber. Sharapova is a former World No. 1 who retired in 2020 and is one of ten women to achieve a career Grand Slam.
A career Grand Slam is the achievement of winning all four major championships in one discipline. She along with Serena Willaims are the only retired females on our list to have achieved the feat.
Serena did it in singles and doubles, further showing her dominance over her counterparts in this piece.
The Active players on Our List
Venus Williams is the highest earner on our list closely followed by Simona Halep. Age wise we do not think she has much to give to the game of tennis. Her last match was on March 19, 2024, in the Miami Open which she lost to Diana Shnaider.
Her latest ranking as per the WTA is 970, with earnings of $53,300. Perhaps this signals to us that her focus is now more on her business ventures, but until she officially retires, she steadily holds the spot among the active players.
As we have forecasted, Iga Swiatek is the player we believe to match or even peep the number one all time earning player, let alone the number two active player, who’s earnings eclipse that of Swiatek by just over 8 million.
Prospects We Believe Will Be Part of the Top 20 in the Future
There are a lot of female tennis players, young and on the come up who promise to dominate the highest paid lists of the future.
We will make mention of just a few, all 25 years of age or below:
| Name | Age | Total Earnings |
| Iga Swiatek | 23 | $32,106,991 |
| Coco Gauff | 20 | $21,581,989 |
| Elena Rybakina | 25 | $15,734,990 |
| Qinwen Zheng | 22 | $8,311,577 |
| Emma Navarro | 23 | $3,528,374 |
FAQs
No, they don’t. Money is made by progressing in and winning the different tournaments.
Professional tennis players get paid according to performance. The are different allocations for each position reached.
Being in the top 100 is probably the best thing a tennis player can do for themselves because the top earners are concentrated right at the top.
Besides earnings from prize monies, players make significant amounts of money from sponsors.
Based in Johannesburg, South Africa, Jimmy holds a Diploma in Journalism and Media Studies. He’s a passionate sports enthusiast with broad knowledge across various disciplines.