NEW YORK: India’s badminton queen PV Sindhu is currently the highest earning female athlete in the world. If tennis is excluded that is. So says Forbes magazine in its ranking of “The Highest-Paid Female Athletes 2018”, released Tuesday.
Serena Williams is the highest paid female athlete for a third consecutive year in 2018, according to the annual list published by Forbes, which is dominated by tennis players.
Sindhu ($8.5 million) and retired race car driver Danica Patrick ($7.5 million) are the only non-tennis players to crack the top 10, filling up the seventh and ninth spots, respectively.
In its report, Forbes notes that the 23-year-old badminton star has a robust sponsor roster with Bridgestone, Gatorade, Nokia, Panasonic, Reckitt Benckiser and a half-dozen other brands, accounting for $8 million of her total earnings. The remaining $500,000 has come in from prize money.
Williams, who returned to competition in March after giving birth last September, earned $62,000 in winnings over the past year but received $18.1 million from an endorsement portfolio unmatched among women in sports, Forbes said.
Williams, who will try to equal Margaret Court’s record of 24 grand slam titles when she competes at the August 27-Sept. 9 US Open in New York, earned twice as much off the court as any other female athlete, according to Forbes.
Dane Caroline Wozniacki, who captured her maiden Grand Slam title at this year’s Australian Open, was second on the list with combined earnings of ($13 million) while reigning US Open champion Sloane Stephens ($11.2 million) was third.
Spaniard Garbine Muguruza ($11 million) and Russian Maria Sharapova ($10.5 million) rounded out the top five.
According to Forbes, the 10 highest-paid female athletes banked $105 million from prize money, appearances, royalties and endorsements in the 12 months ending June 1, 2018. The tally is down 4% from last year and a massive 28% from five years ago.
Blame the retirements of popular endorsement stars like Li Na, Danica Patrick and Ana Ivanovic. Another dent: The off-court income of Sharapova, who was the top-earning female athlete for 11 straight years, is still down more than 50% after the fallout from her 16-month suspension for taking a banned substance.
In June, Forbes issued a ranking of the world’s 100 highest-paid athletes and it did not feature a woman.
Williams, who was the only woman on the list the previous year, dropped out of the chart while taking time off to have a baby.
